Now, tech to trace origins of Alphonso mango back to orchards

Relished a juicy alphonso mango? Now get to know where it was grown.

A simple scan of a sticker pasted on the fruit could assure the consumer of the origins of the mango in the Konkan region and even identify the farm where it was harvested from.

“Establishing traceability for original Alphonso mangoes will not only help consumers to get value for their money, but also curb product falsification and mislabelling,” Vivek Bhide, chairperson of the Konkan Alphonso Mango Producers and Sellers Cooperative Association said.

Alphonso mangoes are grown in the Konkan region of Maharashtra and the variant was granted a Geographic Indicator tag in 2020. “Our solution is based on technology architecture that links data already logged by food producers and suppliers, tracks each piece of fruit based on a unique sticker,” Suniti Gupta, CEO of Innoterra Tech said.

By scanning the QR code sticker on the mango, consumers will get to know how the fruit has travelled from the farm to the retailer – right from the location of the farm, the batch number, processing unit, packaging unit, shipping information and a complete timeline of these steps.

Gupta said the company was working on integrating the solution with blockchain to make the supply chain data verifiable.

Over 15,000 metric tonnes of mangoes are exported every year to the Middle East, UK, China and Europe, where they have to compete with similar variant of the fruit grown in Malawi in Africa which is also sold as ‘Alphonso’.

Gupta said traceability was especially relevant for all GI-tagged products, as authenticity and source of origin were very important "in ensuring the right value for producers.” An Innoterra Tech statement said complete traceability of the fruit to the origin will also help the authorities curb false claims by fruit producers.