This Article is From Mar 26, 2011

Not enough mangoes this summer?

Not enough mangoes this summer?
Mumbai: It is a bad opening, and it may conclude either way. With the sweeping cut that mango crops reaching the city have seen in the first 10 days of summer, its lovers had better brace themselves to either 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.

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 the 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 every day." 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.

As a result, the prices of Alphonso mangoes 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 cannot 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.

"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.  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.

The erratic weather blighting the crop mainly sprang from three factors: a prolonged winter, a 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.

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.

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.

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 a temperature of 17 degrees Celsius 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, which wreaked havoc for the output that is now coming to the market.

Dr RV 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."
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