Indian mango trade bears rich fruit

On a farm nestled between mountains in a peaceful area of India's Raigad district, hundreds of trees are laden with luscious mangoes.
Workers scan the trees for fruits that are ripe for picking and delicately pluck them, then carefully place them in the shade out of the glare of the strong afternoon sun.
The Alphonso mango season is in full swing.
The UAE has a huge appetite for the Alphonso and is India's biggest importer and re-exporter of mangoes in terms of value. The Emirates imported 22 million kilograms of the fruit in the financial year between 2011 and last year, generating more than 1 billion rupees (Dh67.3 million), according to figures from the Indian Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority.
Known as "the king of fruits", the pricey Alphonso mango has a rich aroma, sweet taste, melt-in-mouth texture and a golden colour once fully ripened. The prized fruit can sell for more than three times the price of other varieties of mango, of which there are more than 1,000 in India.
"The taste is not only sweet - it's different," says Sandesh Maruti Patil, the owner and manager of the Bhaktij mango farm in Raigad. "It's a status thing. When someone eats the first Alphonso of the season, they tell people."
Mr Patil gave up a career in homeopathic medicine for the more lucrative mango industry. His farm, which has about 1,000 trees, can produce up to 14,000 mangoes a day. He supplies exporters and local buyers and most of the mangoes on his farm are ultimately destined for the UAE and the wider Arabian Gulf region.
India is the world's biggest grower of mangoes, with a 40 per cent share of total world production data from the UN Food and Agriculture Orgnanization. It produces more than three times the amount of mangoes than the next-largest market, which is China. Total exports of mangoes from India reached 59,000 tonnes in the financial year of 2011, valued at 1.63bn rupees.
India even used mangoes as a bargaining chip in 2007 in a trade deal with the United States to pave the way for the sale of Harley-Davidson motorcycles in India. In 2007, India eased emission guidelines for imported motorbikes to allow Harley-Davidson to enter the Indian market.
This was a trade deal in exchange for mango exports to the US. The US had banned mango exports from India for years before this because of concerns over the levels of pesticides used.
Prices of the fruit swing dramatically depending on supply and demand during the Alphonso harvesting season, which typically runs from mid-March to May.
On Mr Patil's farm, the mangoes are currently selling for about 500 rupees per two dozen. That compares with about 1,400 rupees last year.
"Last year the rates were very high," says Mr Patil.
"This year from mid-March the rates have gone down."
He says this is because of an increase in the supply of mangoes that have been produced in recent weeks compared with the same time last year. But he adds that over the entire season, he expects mango production to reach similar levels to last year, predicting that mango supply will slow next month compared with last year.
"The last three years have not been good for mangoes," says Mr Patil. "Because of the climatic changes we're getting a long winter season."
Fahad Exports is based in the APMC fruit market, in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, where many of the mangoes from the farms in Raigad and other areas including Ratnagiri are sent.
Shuja Merajuddin, who runs Fahad Exports, says he sends most of his mangoes to Dubai. Rising costs are eating into exporters' profits this year, he adds.
"Demand is the same from Dubai this year but the sale price is less," he says. "At the same time, our costs have increased. The packing costs are more, freight rates are higher, port fees have risen and cooling storage costs have increased because of higher electricity prices."
He estimates his costs have risen by more than 30 per cent over the past year, while prices have declined by more than 20 per cent.
"Prices have come down because of demand and supply," he says. "The markets are tight."
Competition has increased from Pakistan, which is sending cheaper varieties of mangoes to the UAE, he adds.
Asad Qureshi, the manager of Vimo Foods, is also based in the Vashi market. He complains that because demand for Alphonso mangoes from the UAE is so strong, the industry has attracted some unscrupulous exporters.
"They don't give us the money on time, or they cut the payment or they say the goods are rotten," Mr Quereshi says. "This year they're not giving a good rate. We're finding it difficult. We're now looking for European countries. There's a lot of demand from the United Kingdom."
Alphonso prices have also slumped in markets in Mumbai.
"There's too much supply for the local market," says Mohammed Mosin, who is a wholesale buyer of mangoes in Mumbai. "The prices are low compared to last year."
There is a huge premium for the first Alphonso batches of the season, which has led farmers to put great efforts into developing methods to coax their trees into ever-earlier harvests.
Mr Patil cuts his trees' trunks to divert the flow of sucrose and induce early flowering.
His farm was able to harvest mangoes at the end of January this year and managed to command rates at that time of 2,514 rupees per two dozen mangoes. Prices have declined as the season takes off and the fruit becomes more readily available.
Some argue that Alphonso mangoes need to be better marketed and properly branded to boost exports.
Farmers in four of the main Alphonso-producing districts - Ratnagiri, Raigad, Thane, and Sindhudurg - are currently trying to secure a patent for their fruit.
Alphonsos are also being exported from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which some farmers argue are not of the same quality, because of the soil and atmospheric conditions.
"Mango growers of four districts have filed a patent," says Mr Patil. "If we get the patent, of course we will advertise everywhere that the people should buy mangoes from these four districts."