TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: With a 30 per cent drop expected in mango production this year, the State is facing a Mango crunch, with industry stakeholders saying that this year’s crop can at best be termed normal. Moreover the quality and size of the king of fruits is not something to write home about, traders feel.
With the peak season less than two weeks away, both the quality as well as quantity of mangoes in the markets has left much to be desired, with mango traders fearing that this year’s output could be 30% lower than that of last year.
“Both the quantity as well as the size of mangoes is reduced. So also, this year the crop came early but was irregular. Last year the season began around the third week of April. This year we started plucking in the month of March itself and the quality isn’t that great,” Rajesh Dhargalkar a local mango dealer said.
“In percentage terms that would be a decrease of say around 30% compared to last year,” he said adding that it was difficult to estimate the actual quantum of the crop based on the availability of mangoes in the market, as mangoes from neighbouring states such as Maharashtra and Karnataka also pushed into the market.
However, he said that in Goa, almost 80% of the fruit sold was of Goan origin.
Currently the rates of mangoes are hovering around Rs 350 for a dozen of mid-size and quality mango, while the bigger and sweeter varieties are around Rs 550 to 600 a dozen. These rates are expected to fall over the next two weeks.
According to Dhargalkar, last year the prices were lower owing to the fact that most of the crop ripened at the same time. Agriculture officials said that the crop was normal and that the peak season would come around two weeks from now. “The crop this year has been normal,” Orlando Rodrigues the Managing Director of the Goa State Horticulture Corporation said.
