Market witnesses rise in mango prices

Economics of demand and supply hardly supports farmers who chopped trees

 There is a sudden surge in the price of mangoes, but, the profit is only for a few growers.

In the market, earlier, the totapuri mango that was sold at a price of Rs 13,000 is now being sold for about Rs 20,000. Benesha mango rate has hiked from Rs 20,000 to Rs 35,000. Neelam mango that was sold at Rs 3,000 has now crossed the price of Rs 15,000.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Abdul Khaleel, a stall owner in Srinivaspur, said, “Now, the mango season is at the ending stage. There is already a shortage of supply of mangoes to the market. The juice centres have been demanding the supply of totapuri mangoes. Mango lovers are wishing to have their favourite fruit before the season ends and have been buying in the market. Due to this, there is a sudden hike in the mango price.”

N Srirama Reddy, one of the mango growers opined that it is common to see the demand for mango rise when the season comes to an end. “It is a wrong notion that if this happens, the mango growers will be profitable.

He adds, “The reason is that by the time when we pluck, the mangoes would have ripened and dropped from the trees. Certain kinds of flies get the mangoes infected. If we compare the profit that we get by selling mangoes in the market to the mangoes that gets rotten in the farm is very meagre,” he said.

At present, there is approximately five to eight percent of mangoes in the taluk. It is not a new fact that the growers have already dumped the mangoes in the market before the price hiked. This time, there was hardly any supply of mangoes. The growers were expecting profitable price but their expectation was not met. The situation has come to a state where the growers are selling mangoes at a decade-old price.

The dried mango trees were chopped off in thousands hectares of land. The rain along with storm and hailstorm hit the mangoes and destroyed it completely. The growers were worried as they did not get the price they expected.  

Few think that as there was no entry of the outside business people, there was decline in price. Other few have purchased the mango directly from the farmers and have not let the outside business people. They bought it from the farmers and sent it to the outside market. They set the price according to their convenience.

P R Suryanarayan, District President, Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha, said, “There is increase in centers who take out the pulp of the mango and send it to juice manufacuring factories. During the season, they remove the kernel of the mango and store it. When right price comes, they sell it and make good amount of profit. They will not offer good price when the season starts. When the season ends, they throng to offer more price. With this, the growers can make around five percent of profit.”

 In a nutshell, it is said that when the season arrives, there is no price. And when season ends, the offer price is good. During all seasons, the mango growers get a meager amount of price. In all this, the middlemen makes profit.