 "Mangoes draw high prices as erratic weather affects production")
Sawakat Hussain, a farmer from Bengal’s Birbhum district, brought Miyazaki — the world’s most expensive variety of mango — to the mango festival in Siliguri last week. It fetched him Rs 30,000 a piece, or equal to the price of five grams of 24-carat gold.
Kohitoor, a speciality mango from Bengal, fetched Rs 2,500 a piece at the same event.
Even the more common varieties of mangoes are fetching higher prices this year as unfavourable climatic conditions have hurt production.
Mango traders said that production of Alphonso mangoes, which are called 'hapoos' in Maharashtra and the Konkan belt, has halved to about 2.5 million boxes (each containing six dozen mangoes) and this, in turn, has driven up their prices, according to a report in The Economic Times (ET).
The Kesar mangoes from Gujarat have also become costlier.
Lower production is also affecting exports. The UAE, Qatar, the UK, the US, Kuwait, Oman, Canada, Singapore, Bahrain and Bhutan are the top importing countries. In FY23, India had exported mangoes worth Rs 360 crores to these nations.
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Sanjay Pansare, director (fruit) at the Mumbai Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), said that the early crop of Alphonso mangoes in February was huge, but the production in April and May decreased significantly, which led to increase in prices.
"Climatic conditions have impacted the production and the arrival (of mangoes) to the mandi,” he said.
Alphonso mangoes that come to markets early in December-January, before the main mango season, fetch a price of Rs 5,000 per dozen or more.
Kaushal Khakhar, an exporter of fruit and vegetables, told ET that when it comes to mangoes, price is not a barrier for Indians.
Khakhar said that even overseas Indians are ready to pay a premium for top-quality Indian mangoes. Hapoos mangoes were sold for $50 per dozen in the US last year.
“This year, the price is $25 to $35," he said.
The fall in price is due to lower freight rates.
The Miyazaki mangoes that Hussain sold at the Siliguri mango festival were bought by local people, underlining India’s love for the fruit.
Talking to ET, Hussain said that he bought a few saplings of the Miyazaki variety from Bangladesh and after one-and-a-half years of planting, he got 38 mangoes.
“The plant needs extraordinary care,” he said.
A Miyazaki mango weighs 350 grams and can go up to 900 grams. In the international market, this variety can cost around Rs 2.5 lakh per kg.