Mangoes stay out of common man’s reach

A release from the government’s Press Information Bureau says the abnormal increase in the prices of mangoes is due to “poor arrivals of the fruit in the markets.”

The result has been a quantum jump in price levels throughout the country. In Mumbai, popular varieties of mangoes, sold between Rs 70 and Rs 80 a dozen last year, are now in the range of Rs 350- Rs 400. In Chennai, the Bangalora variety, a cheap one, is selling at about Rs 20 a kg, more than double the previous year’s price.

The situation is no different in Delhi. The price of Safeda, a good quality mango, is over Rs 40 a kg. No other variety is easily available in the market.

This year, only four or five truck loads of mangoes enter Chennai daily as against 30 to 40 truck loads witnessed in theprevious year, says Elangovan, Secretary of the Chennai Fruit Commission Agents’ Association.

Only about 100 to 150 boxes of Alphonso variety are arriving daily this year from Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, as compared with the last year’s average of about 600 boxes, he adds.

Another vendor Marimuthu said even the pride of the south, the Malgova variety from the nearby Salem, started arriving late this year. Any improvement in the situation this year is unlikely as the season is drawing to a close.

Usually, the shortfall in production in one part of the country is offset by a bumper crop in some other region of the country. This year, the yield has suffered uniformly.

An estimate puts the shortfall at 45 per cent for the whole country. As against the normal production of 110 lakh tonnes a year, the current year’s production is estimated at only 60 lakh tonnes. The yield has fallen by about 40 per cent in Andhra Pradesh, which accounts for 28 per cent of the total mango crop in the country. The output inKarnataka, which accounts seven per cent of the production, is significantly low. The production of mango in Tamil Nadu, which accounts for four to five per cent of the country’s output, fell by about 60 per cent in the main mango producing area of Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Salem.

In other areas of the state also, the production has fallen sharply. However, the production of varieties like Bangalora, Kalapad and Neelam has not been affected much.

A decline in mango production is not unusual after a peak. Therefore, this year’s decline was not an unexpected one. But what was not expected was the the extend to which the shortfall could be What was not expected is the size of the shortfall in production.

The PIB study says that the failure of the mango crop is not restricted to India alone. The south-east Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines have reported falls in mango production this year. Experts believe that environmental degradation such as the forest fire in Indonesia and EINino effect could be the cause for the crop failure in these countries.

In India, the unseasonal rains leading to extended winter and consequent low temperature in the north did not allow adequate and timely flowering. Thereafter, the rise in temperature and rains resulting in the increasing humidity levels which led to breeding of insects, proved harmful to the mango crop, according to experts in the field.

In the South, continuous rains in the mango growing areas resulted in flowers failing to bloom last December and January. The heavy rains also affected the pollination.

The Rumani variety put out excessive vegetative growth due to the extended rainy season. The absence of the dew in the flowering season also contributed to this phenomenon.

In India, about 1,500 varieties of mango are grown, including 1,000 commercial varieties with unique taste and flavour. The most sought after variety, Alphonso, is mainly cultivated in Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, Bulsar in Gujarat and also inKarnataka.

Dashehari, Langra, Bombay Green and Chausa are grown in Uttar Pradesh. Another top variety, Himsagar is cultivated in West Bengal. Banganapalli, Neelam, Bangalora and Swarnarekha abound in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.