Economic Slowdown

Mango exports to the USA are likely to see a decline this year due to the economic slowdown, an industry official has said. “The general economic slowdown has impacted exports to the USA as we have fewer orders this year,” Mumbai-based fruits exporter Mr Deepak Patil, said. Mango exporters had already commenced preparations like meeting growers, placing orders and booking the irradiation facility as mango exports would commence in the last week of April, Mr Patil said. During the 2008 mango season, India exported 143 tons of mangoes to the USA valued at around Rs 2 crore. Export volumes remained low as the quality of the fruit was affected by unseasonal rains while exporters too faced problems of high costs of compliance and freight, among others. Currently, in the case of mango exports, India depends on traditional markets like the West Asia and the United Kingdom.

Non-resident Indians (NRIs) are major consumers of Indian mangoes. Meanwhile, paving way for safe mango exports in 2009, the irradiation facility of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) at Lasalgaon in Maharastra's Nasik district commenced operation last week. The BARC plant had a capacity of 500 tons, an Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda) official said. Irradiation is a modern food preservation technology that can reduce the risk of food poisoning, control food spoilage and extend shelf life of the food. The process got a shot in the arm when the USAUSA decided to import Indian mangoes in 2008. The prefers irradiation to get rid of an insect pest mango seed weevils and fruit-fly from the fruits. Meanwhile, the official said mango production in 2009 season (April-September) was likely to be low as the crop had failed due to erratic climate. He, however, said that the crop loss could not be quantified.