The mango season is nearing to a close, leaving behind unhappy stakeholders across the supply chain starting from farmers, traders, retailers to consumers here.
The season saw a fall in production due to disease and poor rainfall. What should have been a windfall gain due to fall in supply was marred by the pandemic. This had in turn hurt not just the farmers, but the last mile retailer, and smallest hawkers selling the fruit on the highways.
The mango season coincided with the start of the lockdown throwing farmers in a fix especially when it was time for the harvest of pickle mangoes in April. The shutdown of markets and transport, and incremental lifting of restrictions and the pandemic led labour shortage all piled on to the woes of the farmers. However, two months later, as the mango season nears its end, there has been little respite for farmers.
While farmers faced labour shortage due to villages placing curbs on entry of workers from outside for harvest, the procurement by traders was hit by lack of transport facilities. Traders relying on inter-state movement of the fruit cut down their procurement.
At the retail end, the price of mangoes had doubled, but the incomes of consumers have fallen cutting down their ability to buy the king of fruits. This had affected the last mile retailer.
“A small size Malgova variety is priced at ₹80 to ₹120 a kg. Senthura is ₹40 to ₹50 a kg, which is the highest. Last year, Senthura was ₹ 20 a kg,” says Mani. The retail end price hardly trickles down to the growers, who are unhappy with the traders and the pulp factories that procure in bulk.
For retailers like Mani, the high price has cut down the ability of the consumers to buy off the shelf.
“Last year if I procured 1 tonne from the trader and the farmer, this year, I only procured half a tonne, because nobody is buying,” he says of the fallen purchasing power of the consumer, who has been hit by the lockdown.
The season is soon coming to a close, but the demand is nowhere growing for the king of fruits.