Vijayawada: High prices turn mangoes sour

Vijayawada: It's a disappointing summer season for mango lovers and traders in Vijayawada this year as the prices of Banginapalli mangoes are beyond the reach of a common man. Nuzvid region is well known for production of Banginapalli variety mangoes. Farmers from Nuzvid region bring their produce to Vijayawada and sell it at the local retail market in Vijayawada every summer.

But this year, the prices are very high and common people could not afford to buy Banginapalli variety. Due to the drastic decline of mango production this year, supply of mangoes from local market to Vijayawada is very less this year. It is estimated that there is a decline of around 40 per cent of mango crop this year.

Mango is cultivated in around 30,000 hectares in Nuzvid region and parts of NTR Krishna district. Banginapalli is the most popular variety produced in the Nuzvid region. Now, the Banginapalli variety is sold between Rs 250 to Rs 500 a dozen depending on the size and quality.

In Vijayawada retail market, mostly two varieties of mangoes are sold. Banginapalli and juicy variety. Every year, juicy variety costs more compared to Banginapalli. But this year the juicy varieties are available at reasonable prices and Banginapalli are sold at very high prices.

Now, the juicy variety is sold between Rs 120 to Rs 350 per dozen depending on the size.

Several hundred mango farmers from Nuzvid, Agiripalli, Reddygudem, Mylavaram, Chatrai and other mandals of undivided Krishna district come to retail mango market in Vijayawada for sales. This year, very small number of mango farmers are coming from these areas to the retail market in Vijayawada.

Mango production drastically declined in Krishna, NTR district and Eluru districts this year due to adverse weather conditions, pest attack and untimely rains that damaged the crop between December 2021 and February 2022, said P Balaji Kumar, Assistant Director, Horticulture, Eluru. He said the crop output decreased by around 40 percent. He said the Banginapalli variety output drastically decreased this year. He said various factors affected the mango crop and farmers are disappointed with low output this year.

Due to Covid lockdown and other reasons, the mango farmers mostly sold their output in the local market in 2020 and 2021. But this year there is no Covid in this summer. Consequently, the North Indian traders are coming to Nunna mango market and other local mandis and buying the good quality mangoes.

Compared to the local buyers in Vijayawada, consumers of other big cities like Delhi or Mumbai spend more to buy the quality mangoes. So the mango farmers are showing interest to sell their output to the North Indian traders, who buys in bulk quantities in Vijayawada and other local mandis.

D Kishore, a mango trader in Kedareswara Pet said he was disappointed with poor sales this season. He said mango season will end in two weeks and still there is no improvement in business. Like Kishore several hundred traders in Kedareswara Pet and Ayodhya Nagar are disappointed with low supply of mangoes and poor response from consumers.