Imsaram Ali, president of the Mango Growers Association of India on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate measures to increase export of mango in the international market.
UP has 14 mango belts in Lucknow (Lucknow, Malihabad, Bakshi-ka-Talaab), Saharanpur and Sambhal-Amroha-Muzaffarnagar districts. Apart from Dussehri, the other major varieties in UP comprise Langda, Chausa, Amprapali and Mallika.
The plucking of dussehri, which will hit the shelves next week at 50% premium, started late this season, because of poor crop and adverse weather conditions, including hailstorms, in the orchards of Malihabad.
Export of mango, especially alphonso, to European countries has been negligible this season; shipments to the Gulf fell 40-50 per cent.
The Centre had lowered its estimate of crop damage.
Intermittent storm in the first week of March hit the flowers and emerging buds.
While the mango season started with the Alphonso variety trading at Rs 18 a kg (model price), it jumped to Rs 30 a kg at the wholesale Vashi mandi.
UK environment minister Lord de Mauley hosted a round-table meeting here with representatives of mango and vegetable importers and exporters from the UK and India, Deputy Indian High Commissioner to the UK Virendra Paul, and senior regulators from Defra and the Food and Environment Research Agency.
Santosh Patkar of Devgadh Taluka Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra is a worried man these days. Devgadh, which is known as the home to world famous Alphonso variety of mangoes, has seen an unusual drop in yields which is affecting farmers' income. Being one of the primary agricultural produce from the area, Santosh is not untouched by this somewhat rare phenomenon. He said in his own mango garden, yields have come down by a third from most trees.
Supply rises as farmers harvest crops amid fear of spoilage on expectations of early showers