Bengaluru GPO to deliver Karnataka mangoes to Mumbai, Delhi

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru General Post Office (GPO) will now deliver Karnataka mangoes to Mumbai and Delhi this season, announced S Rajendra Kumar, Chief Postmaster General of the Karnataka Circle, on Tuesday.

Launched in 2019, the initiative is a collaboration between India Post’s Bengaluru GPO and the Karnataka State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation Limited. So far, it has delivered 3.51 lakh kg of mangoes in over one lakh boxes. The goal is to provide farmers with direct market access, eliminating middlemen.

"This year, we will begin mango deliveries to Mumbai and Delhi via speed post through air transport. A trial will be conducted soon. This will allow people outside Karnataka to enjoy our mangoes,” Kumar said, adding that the service will be expanded to other metros in the coming years.

CG Nagaraju, Managing Director of the Karnataka State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation Limited, noted that online farmer portals now have over 45,000 permanent customers. "We have also connected farmers with apartment associations and adopted other innovative marketing techniques,” he added.

The mangoes are packed by farmers in boxes of three kilograms and are delivered by postmen the next day. Currently, this service is available only in Bengaluru.

International exports 

Regarding international exports, Nagaraju said the process is tedious, involving multiple quality checks and quarantine treatments that make it expensive for the mango board. “Despite this, several countries, including the United States and European nations, import Karnataka mangoes,” he said.

He added that Kari Ishad, a GI-tagged mango grown in the Ankola region of Karnataka, is in high demand, along with other commercially popular varieties such as Badami, Sindhura, and Alphonso.

Since its inception in 2019, the Mango Post initiative has generated Rs 83 lakh in revenue for India Post.