Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru (SS)

Bengaluru, May 5: More than 100 tons of Alphonso, Mallika, Banganapalli and Badami varieties of the Mango fruit that are grown in the state are being exported to countries like Bangladesh, US and a few other countries.

Decks are being cleared under the aegis of Karnataka State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation to begin exports of mangoes for which a pack house has been established near Chintamani.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there were no exports of the fruit for the last two-three years.

This year, however, mangoes are getting ready to be exported to countries such as Singapore, UK, US, Bangladesh, Gulf and many others by the Corporation.

Besides, a pack house has been set up by the Karnataka State Agricultural Produce Processing & Export Corporation Limited (KAPPEC) in Pujanahalli to store tons of mangoes and export the fruit. The KAPPEC has already constituted a team of technical experts to oversee the packaging of mangoes in the pack house. The market is likely to get a good produce of the mangoes by the first or second week of May and exports are likely to commence soon, according to the KAPPEC officials.

C G Nagaraj, managing director of Karnataka State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation, says "We had sent a sample of 400 kilos of mangoes to France last month. Now, there is a demand for more than 100 tons of mangoes from other countries. The fruit will be lifted from the Maadikere pack house near Chintamani and exported. Badami, Mallika, Banganapalli and other varieties of mangoes are being exported."

Lower mango yield

This year, the yield of mangoes has been considerably lower than expected due to the unseasonal rainfall received in some parts of mango growing areas due to which mango flowers have either fallen off or withered away.

Although a few fruit-bearing flowers have become fruits due to the sunlight some of them have also fallen off. The prices of mangoes are likely to go up this year as a result of lower yield, Nagaraj said.

Currently, mangoes are grown in 1.9 lac hectares of land in Karnataka. On average, the state produces 12-15 lac tons of the fruit. But, due to unseasonal rainfall, the yield this year is likely to fall to 7-8 lac tons. Mainly, there are three mango growing zones in the state. Kolar, Chikkaballapur, Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural, Tumakuru and Ramanagara districts are identified as one zone where 75% of the mangoes that are exported are being grown. Belagavi, Dharwad, Hubballi are Haveri form the second zone which constitute 20% of the produce. Koppal, Bagalkot, Chitradurga, Ranebennur and Davanagere form the third zone where 5% of the mango crop is grown.