Crop hit by rain, shell out more for mangoes

Mango lovers may have to cough up more money this year due to short supply of the fruit owing to significant crop damage and rising export orders pouring in especially from the UAE, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bangladesh and others, an ASSOCHAM report said.

Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh which together account for about two-third share in India’s total mango production, the reports said.

“These states have recently witnessed nature’s wrath owing to unseasonal rains coupled with hailstorm damaging over 50 per cent crop which is likely to holdup mango arrivals resulting in upward spiralling of prices,” noted an analysis of India’s national fruit conducted by the Agri-business council of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.

“Mango production across India in all likelihood will remain about 15-20 per cent lower than last year’s level of 18 million tonnes (MT) and even the exports are likely to remain muted this year,” said D S Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM.

Clocking a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of over five per cent, the production of mangoes across India has increased from 13.9 MT in 2007-08 to 18 MT in 2012-13. Besides, the cultivated area and productivity have also grown at a CAGR of 2.6 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively during this period, it said.

Of over 1,300 varieties of mangoes grown across the world and India alone cultivates over one thousand varieties of the fruit, the report added.

Andhra Pradesh and UP together account for about half of the total mangoes produced in India and both the states account for almost similar share of over 24 per cent. Karnataka (10 per cent), Bihar (7.6 per cent) and Gujarat are amid top five states with high share in mangoes’ production across the country.

Exports of mangoes from India have grown at a CAGR of over 27 per cent during the course of past three years that is from over Rs 16,400 lakh in 2010-11 to over Rs 26,700 lakh as of 2012-13. 

“This has had a significant impact on domestic demand of mangoes thereby leading to rise in its prices,” the report pointed out.