Representative Image | Photo: Ajith Shankaran/ Mathrubhumi
Palakkad: Over two months delay in the onset of mango season has caused a heavy blow to the farmers in Kerala’s ‘mango city’- Muthalamada with a loss of hundreds of crores of rupees.
The mango season which usually begins in the last week of December started only at the end of February this year. The untimely rain caused the fragile inflorescence drop, resulting in the delay of the season. Most of the mango trees in the plantations in Muthalamada lost two to five times of its inflorescence with the unprecedented rainfall. The scorching heat in the region also affects unripened mangoes.
The first batch of mangoes reaching the major markets such as Delhi, Ahmedabad, Indore and Bengaluru were from Muthalamada in the previous years. Alphonso mango has a huge demand in these regions at the beginning of the season. But the price usually drops when mangoes from Salem, Ratnagiri, and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh also arrive.
The mangoes from other districts have already started to rule the markets and the export sector.
The price of Alphonso mangoes dropped to Rs 180 on March 7, from Rs 500 in February. Director of Palakkad Mango Valley Farmers Producer Company Limited CY Shaik said that a trade of only Rs 10 crore had been carried out in this season resulting in a loss of at least Rs 500 crore.
RELATED STORIES
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
%20(1).jpg?$p=f37d900&q=0.8&f=16x11&w=104)
.jpg?$p=ef6eb26&q=0.8&f=16x11&w=104)
