Curious case of vanishing mangoes

Prolonged cold spell coupled with dicey weather slashes mango output by 80% at season's start, experts warn of low yield and high costs

It is a bad opening and it may conclude either way. With the sweeping cut that mango crop reaching the city has seen in the first 10 days of summer, its lovers had better brace themselves either to pay dearly, or refrain from relishing the fruit, traders and vendors say.



According to statistics, the number of mangoes that made it to the city at the season's beginning has dipped drastically this year over last.
u00a0
In 2010, between March 15 and 25, the total number of mangoes that reached the city was 1.5 crore, as compared to 30 lakh mangoes this year over the same days.

The 80 per cent decline is the culmination of the inconsistent weather pattern the crop witnessed through its cycle this season, say experts, giving slight hope that things may get better.

The president of Fruits Merchandise Welfare Association at the APMC market in Vashi, Balasaheb Bendi, said, "Doing an analysis of the first 10 days of the mango season, that is March 15 to 25, only 5,000 crates of mangoes have arrived at APMC on a daily basis.

Last year, during the same period, 25,000 crates had arrived everyday." Each crate carries nearly five-dozen mangoes.

Bendi added that the yield in the mango-growing districts of Ratnagiri and Deogarh was 75 per cent of the total seeds grown. Of this, only a quarter has reached the market.
u00a0
As a result, the prices of Alphonso mango are as high as Rs 700 per dozen at the wholesale market. Other varieties of the fruit are yet to arrive. MiD DAY had earlier reported of the low yield and consequent high prices ('Less aam for aam aadmi this year', March, 12).

A vendor selling mangoes since 1986, Mohammad Farkhan, says, "The aam adami can not afford to buy mangoes. It's a privilege only the high strata of society have. As a result of a drastic decline in the harvest, the supply is irregular."

The suppliers have their own set of problems, largely beyond their control.

Kirti Singh Rana, a mango producer from Satpura district, who owns 2,300 mango trees on 60 acres had summed up the malaise afflicting every mango grower's crop when MiD DAY spoke to him earlier in the month.
u00a0
"Crops that should have flowered by November did so around January and February. The entire cycle has been affected because of erratic weather.

There will be a tremendous shortage of mangoes this year," he had said.u00a0 The dearth has also affected the export market, says the owner of Faldah exports. "The export of mangoes is surely going to decrease. In the beginning of the season, itself, I incurred a loss of 20 per cent," he said.

Reasons

The erratic weather blighting the crop mainly sprang from three factors, prolonged winter, whimsical monsoon, and temperature changes.

Dr Subhash Chavan, associate director, Research, Regional Fruit Research Station at Dr Balasaheb Sawant Agricultural University, said, "The Alphonso mango produce is low this year due to the prolonged winter.

Usually, the mango flower requires 10-12 days of cold climate. But the last winter stretched over 60 days, exposing the crop to more cold. As such, the fertilisation of flowers took a longer time."

Other than the chill, unpredictable rainfall and temperature variation also played spoiler to a good output (see box).

Take heart

Although the produce has been depressingly low at the season's beginning and the prices are skyrocketing, making the fruit unaffordable, experts have some uplifting news. They believe that more mangoes would arrive in the city in a few weeks, bringing the rates down.

"The temperature is now stable and the ripening process is going on well in the whole of Konkan region," said Chavan. The relative stability in the weather is expected to lift the wilting mango yield.

Did you know
As revealed by S K Malhotra, head of Public Awareness Division, Department of Atomic Energy, for the last four seasons, BARC has been doing radiation processing for mangoes meant for exports to countries like the US, as per their safety norms that do not allow import of produce without the radiation clearance certification, which is sold for $3 per piece.

Rs 600 per mango!
According to news reports, this year's first Alphonso mango fetched a record Rs 600 per fruit, almost 50 per cent more than last year's opening price. The first four boxes of this mango were sold for Rs 7,000 each at the Crawford Market in January. Each box contained a dozen Alphonsos. Whereas, in Pune, the first box of 40 Alphonsos were sold at an auction to an NRI conducted by the APMC for Rs 11,111.



Erratic Weather

Nippy weather apart, the mango yield has been affected also because of a prolonged monsoon that interrupted the crop's normal cycle.

Usually, the crop receives 120 days of rainfall every year. But this season's crop, as you would recall, witnessed 160 days of downpour that occurred last year.

Also, the mango flower requires 17 degrees Celsius of temperature or below for 10-12 days to bloom, but last year these conditions lasted for 60 days.

We are witnessing the combined effects of these three anomalies last year,u00a0 which worked havoc for the output that is now coming to market.

Dr R V Sharma, deputy director, India Meteorological Department-Western Region, said, "We will have to analyse the weather condition and its effects on the crop. Usually on coastal Maharashtra, the cold does not last long and isn't so severe."

Voices

I haven't started buying mangoes yet as the cost is high. I am waiting for April when the cost will probably
go down.
Namisha Vyas (35), Kandivli

Mango rates in Bandra and Khar markets are extremely high and for the past so many days, I have only glanced at the fruit. Even though I feel like buying it, I won't. The price will go down in a few days.
Madhuri Mestry (43), Khar

Number Game

17C
The temperature required to bloom the mango flower

1.5 crore
The total number of mangoes that reached the city between March 15 and 25 last year

Rates
Crawford Market: Rs 1,000- Rs 2,000/dozen
APMC, Vashi: Rs 2,900-Rs 3,000/5 dozens

Did you know?
India is the leading producer of mango in the world, followed by Mexico and China.

75%
Yield in the mango-growing districts of Ratnagiri and Deogarh

Rs 7,000
Price of the first dozen of Alphonso mangoes sold at Crawford Market

5,000
No of mango crates arriving at the Vashi market daily (Last year it was 25,000 per day)

The first Mango of the season was sold for Rs 600!