AP mangoes

Andhra Pradesh is India's second largest producer of mangoes and it has the highest productivity of 12 tones per hectare. While Andhra Pradesh produces 3.07 million tones of mango, U.P., Bihar and Karnataka produce 2.39, 1.79 and 0.92 million tones, respectively. India ranks first among world’s mango producing countries accounting for 52.63 per cent of the total world’s mango production of 19 million tones.

Specialty of Indian mangoes...

1. World's largest mango producer.

2. 40% of world mangoes are produced in India.

3. Very little is exported, because of domestic consumption needs.

4. Mangoes are regularly exported to Gulf.

5. There are other famous varieties like Alfonso cultivated in other States like Maharashtra and UP.

Most common varieties of AP are:

Bangalora(Totapuri) : It is a commercial variety of south India. The fruit size is medium to large, its shape is oblong with necked base and color is golden yellow. Fruit quality is poor. Keeping quality is very good. It is widely used for processing. It is a mid season variety.

Banganapalli(Benishan): It is a commercial variety of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and also known as Chapta, Safeda, Benishan and Chaptai. Fruit is large in size and obliquely oval in shape. The color of the fruit is golden yellow. Fruit quality and keeping quality are good. It is a mid season variety and is good for canning.

Suvarnarekha : This is a commercial variety of Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. Other synonyms of this variety are Sundari, Lal Sundari. Fruit is medium in size and ovate oblong in shape. Color of the fruit is light cadmium with a blush of jasper red. Fruit quality is medium and keeping quality is good. It is an early variety.

Despite an expected low production of mangoes this year, the total exports of mangos from Andhra Pradesh is likely to see a 100 per cent jump over last year. Unlike last year, due to adoption of better pest management techniques and awareness of qualitative produce, the mango growers from the state are hoping for better price realization from other countries during this season.

"Last year, the total production of mangoes was about 32 lakh tonnes with instances of three times of flowering during the season. This led to good production but this year the output is expected to fall by about one-third over last year’s production," according to sources. "But low volume in production will not reflect on the exports," said APEDA officials. However, it is too early to predict on exports. The production is based on the rate of flowering and climatic conditions during harvest period, they said. The reasons attributed for the fall is believed to be poor remunerative prices fetched during last season. Last year, the prices of Banganapalli variety fetched about Rs 15 per kilo at the farm gates, but the poor farmer realized less than Rs 10 per kilo, in between eaten away by the middlemen. This has led to low investment by the growers despite bumper crop last season, said sources. Added to this, the change in weather conditions during the fruit set period has caused ‘neglect’ towards orchards. "Bad weather conditions, low prices fetched last year has led to the neglect of mango gardens which are the reasons for less production this season," said APEDA officials