Mangoes are pouring into Tamil Nadu -- and they're cheaper than ever before, thanks to the drought and US president George Bush Jr.
Mango prices in the state have fallen almost 30 per cent this summer. The average wholesale mango prices in Tamil Nadu have fallen to Rs 7,000 to Rs 9 000 a tonne from Rs 9,000 to Rs 13,000 during the previous season (the mango season starts in April, peaks in May and June and ends in September).
That's not surprising either -- nearly double the volume of mangoes have come into the state from neighbouring states than is normal.
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According to National Horticulture Board officials, between April 12 this year and April 30, 1,261 tonne of mangoes arrived at Chennai's wholesale market at Koyambedu, Asia's largest wholesale market for fruits, vegetables and flowers, up from April 2002's 525 tonne.
The pace of mango arrivals has only picked up this month. In the first week of May, close to 300 tonne per day arrived at Chennai. So arrivals this May could top the 5 110 tonne figure of May 2002.
So why are mangoes so abundant in the state? For two reasons. First, the average yield in the previous season was only 25-30 per cent of the yield (737 tonne in Tamil Nadu) in the boom year of 2001. This summer, however, yields have increased by anywhere between 60 per cent and 70 per cent -- trade sources say that over 800 tonne of mangoes have been produced in the state alone.
Secondly, the Iraq war put paid to any hopes that growers had of exporting mangoes to the lucrative Gulf market.
Says A Jayapal, president, Salem Mango and Fruit Traders Association: "Until last year, the Gulf region was a major consumer of Alphonso mangoes. These were shipped from the northern belt and from West Bengal.
Owing to the war the entire shipment for the Gulf region has been sold within the country." Nearly 80 per cent of the Alphonso mangoes -- there are several varieties of these, but the most preferred one comes from Maharashtra -- produced in the country is exported to the Gulf.
Once premium varieties like Alphonso are sold in local markets in India, it has a cascading effect on the prices that non-premium varieties of mangoes command. Though small quantities of this premium variety still get exported via the southern states to Malaysia and Singapore, the quantity does not compensate for the loss of the Gulf market.
The abundance of mangoes, according to traders at Salem and Chennai, is also partly due to the 10-day truckers' strike in April. Growers rushed to push their mangoes into the market once the strike ended.
"Farmers and traders had to make up for the loss of time and this has also caused excess supply in the market," Jayapal points out. He says that while the mango crop in north India is being sold in the region, mangoes from neighbouring states are being sold in Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the fifth largest producer of mangoes in the country, but is a major consumer of mangoes.
S Srinivasan, president, Chennai Fruits Commission Agent's Association, which represents the interests of wholesalers, offers another explanation for prices having crashed. "Because of inadequate rainfall this year, the size of the fruit for this season is also smaller. Excessive heat has firmed up the fruit and made it smaller," he says.
The Bangananpalli variety (this is called Safeda in the northern states) is a hot favourite in Tamil Nadu. Says Srinivasan: Today, almost the entire 300 tonne of mangoes that come into the city daily is the 'Bangananpalli' variety and most of this comes from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh."
But from the third week of May, the Totapari and Neelam varieties will hit the market here and they're used by mango pulp extracting units. "Andhra Pradesh has 50 such units and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have another 30," says Srinivasan, adding: "On an average we export 10,000 tonne of mango fruit pulp a day during the season.
This could increase the price per tonne by Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000, depending on the variety." So prices will tumble till the third week of May. Till then, Tamilians will celebrate the great mango cornucopia.