Dairy Facon places order for Indian mangoes

Apeda contacts Andhra farmers for supply

Dairy Facon International Group (DFIG), a Hong Kong-based super market chain, has placed an order for fresh purchase of Indian mangoes.

The group wants 50 boxes of mangoes each weighing 5 kg for sale through its outlets spread over Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and India.

Following this, officials of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) here are contacting farmers to supply best quality mangoes so as to ensure that mango export to DFIG continues even in future. The freight charges of the mangoes, to be supplied to DFIG in a couple of days, will be borne by Apeda.

Incidentally, good quality mangoes are in short supply this year as the mango crop was affected by cyclonic weather and unseasonal rains.

"The yields are good but the fruit's colour and texture have been affected by the unseasonal rains," Apeda's Andhra Pradesh regional manager, T Sudhakar, told Business Standard. Andhra Pradesh accounts for 30 per cent of the estimated 10 million tonnes of mangoes output in the country this year.

Meanwhile, as part of its efforts to boost export of mangoes, Apeda is planning to launch a shop promotional campaign in Japan by this month end or in July.

"It is going to be our first mango promotional campaign in Japan, which is expected to open up the Japanese market for Indian mangoes," Sudhakar said, adding that the mangoes to be exhibited would be subjected to Japanese vapour (JV) treatment for elimination of quarantine pests.

He said that the JV treatment of exportable varieties of mangoes had been done and protocols were established at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa. A commercial facility for JV treatment of fruits too has been established at Vashi near Mumbai.

Referring to the aspect of export of mangoes to America, Sudhakar said that the members of a US team, which visited India last month, had talked about adequate post harvest treatment of the fruits so that they could be sold in their country.

In this regard, they have suggested irradiation and hot water treatment as some of the options available. "Once the US market opens, there will be a sizeable demand for Indian mangoes in the country," he said.

Earlier, Apeda had displayed Indian mangoes at food exhibitions in Singapore and Holland as part of its brand building exercise. The organisation is planning similar initiatives in Germany and the Middle East during this month.

It is also encouraging the practice of picking up the fruit directly from the farm for export purposes. Purchasing directly from the farm is stated to be helpful in preserving the colour and flavour of the fruit to a large extent.