Title - Best mangoes go out of state

HYDERABAD: If you have missed your favourite mango variety this season and had to make do with the poor quality mango made available in the city, do not blame just crop failure. Seems the best varieties of the king of fruits are being shipped out to other parts of the country and this practice has been very profitable. Banginapalli, Rasalu, Collector and Totapuri are the popular variants of fruit produced in the state. These are shipped out every year and the export of mango from major producing areas like Nuzvid and Vizianagaram have surprisingly not been affected by the bad weather. Those in mango trade attribute this to the strong demand from North India. "Only 10% of the harvest is locally consumed. Much of the produce is transported to north owing to strong demand for the variants of fruits that are grown in the state," said Imtiyazuddin of Andhra Food grower merchants' associations adding that 60% of the fruit produced and exported is Baginapalli.

Although the yields these times is no better and only marginally lower than last year, mango transport to other parts of the country is better than what it was last season. Figures of mango export by rail from Nuzvid are indicative of this. Until Friday, the South Central Railway ran 21 trains or rakes comprising 42 wagons from Nuzvid and exported more than 24,000 tonnes of fruit, earning Rs 4.5 crore.

The transport of mangoes started in the first week of April and is expected to go on till June first week. In 2012, SCR transported 20 rakes of fruit (25,200 tonnes) with each rake having a carrying capacity of 1,260 tonnes.

Traders and officials of SCR expect the numbers to be much higher when the season finally ends. "If the weather remains conducive till the end of season, exporters are confident of sending 30 rakes (more than 37,000 tonnes) of fruit," said K Sambasiva Rao, chief public relations officer for SCR.

From Vizianagaram (East Coast Railway) the export was even larger at 28 rakes. This is set to increase by a dozen by the end of the season, whereas last season it was 30 rakes.

Unseasonal February rains in the state affected the flower and early crop, while night time fog caused blackening of the fruit. Mango diseases that usually set in after unseasonal rains affected crops in both Telangana and Andhra regions, farmers said.

As a result, arrivals in the city, as in other local markets across the state, have witnessed a sharp drop in quality.

"Though we have not witnessed a dip in quantity, the quality of the fruit has been severely affected. Consequently the price of the fruit has also come down both in wholesale and retail. At the start of the reason the price per tonne of Baginapalli was hovering at Rs 50,000 but now it has not come down to Rs 23,000," said Ramana Rao, special grade secretary at Kothapet fruit market.