King-size deal

An official of Reliance Fresh too said his company was contacting farmers through field agents. The Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts in Konkan form Maharashtra8217;s mango heartland, being the home of the famed Ratnagiri and Deogarh hapus mangoes with around 87,529 hectares under mango cultivation. Around 1.5 lakh tonne of mangoes are grown annually, depending on the weather conditions.

However, while premium quality mangoes are even sold to consumers at around Rs 1,200 for one box of four dozen mangoes, farmers get a pittance in return: Rs 20 for a kilo, or four mangoes. The middlemen corner the profits.

Enter the corporates. They plan to buy the fruit at a premium of about 10 per cent on the price quoted by middlemen. Since they buy the mangoes straight from the farms, the farmers are saved the cost of taking their produce to bigger markets like the Agriculture Produce Market Committees APMC at Vashi in Navi Mumbai and Pune. The wastage of fruit during transportation is minimised and so is exploitation by local commission agents and small time politicians.

For the corporates too it8217;s a good deal8212;it8217;s cheaper buying from the farmers than the middlemen. Says Milind Joshi, divisional manager, Maharashtra State Agriculture and Marketing Board MSAMB, which is trying to create an interface between the sellers and the buyers and even organised a workshop on the issue: 8220;This system works in favour of both parties. While sellers can get better rates, buyers can get fresh produce at less prices, and pass the benefit to the consumers.8221;

The MSAMB is also training local farmers for quality certifications and standardisation to enable exports. Adds Dr Anil Dake, senior scientist of the Jalgaon-based Jain

Irrigation Systems which is planning to purchase around 20,000 tonnes of mangoes this year from Ratnagiri8217;s farmers: 8220;We will buy the mangoes directly from the farmers and pay them a premium over and above the market rates.8221;

The company plans to use the mangoes for processing and canning in its plants at Jalgaon and Chittur in Andhra Pradesh. They also plan to export 1,000 tonne of the fruit. Though it has bought around 6,000 tonne of mangoes for the past five years from the Konkan, this year they plan to deal with the farmers directly through collection centres at places like Ratnagiri and Chiplun.

Officials from the ITC8217;s organic farming division who are in the third year of sourcing mangoes from the district said they planned to buy around 130 tonne of organic mangoes for canning. Last year, the company also bought around 100 tonne organic mangoes in addition to non-organic mangoes.

ITC officials add that they planned to buy from at least 86 organic farmers and had a total of 278 farmers covering around 450 acres on their rolls, including those who were converting to organic farming.

But much of the fruit has been booked in advance this year by the traders and middlemen and farmers said the real impact would be felt next year with both corporates and agents competing to get the fruit.

However, farmers said that though this competition would work out to their benefit in the short run, they would always be on guard about their corporate foray in the long run. 8220;We do not want the company representatives to be the suit-and-tie clad versions of the exploitative traders and middlemen,8221; said a mango orchard owner.