Battle for recognition: Ratnagiri’s struggle for GI tags for Alphonso mangoes and the road ahead

Ambre, whose orchard has around 3,000 mango trees, said, “I had completed the documentation necessary to register my orchards. Since I received the registration, I have branded my boxes with the registration number which adds value to my product.”

Ambre, who is a member of the Konkan Hapus Amba Utpadak, Vikreta Sangh, a cooperative body of mango growers in the Konkan region of the state, said the registration is not just for branding. “Our cooperative has initiated legal actions against MNCs and processors who had spuriously used the term Hapus even though their mangoes were not sourced from Konkan. The farmers have understood their rights,” he said.

Back in 2018, after almost a 10-year-long legal fight, mango growers from the five districts of Konkan region — Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Raigad, Thane and Plaghar — were granted GI tags for the mangoes grown in the region. Devoid of legal complexities, this forbade the usage of the term Hapus or Alphonso for mangoes sourced from any other part than Konkan.

Mukundrao Joshi, director of the cooperative body said this was done to protect the uniqueness of the mango grown in their area. Joshi said mangoes grown vegetatively from the cuttings of the orchards outside Konkan can’t use the term Hapus. “Mango orchards in Karnataka as well as Africa have been grown from cuttings in Konkan but they can’t be called Hapus, instead they have to be sold as mangoes from those areas,” he said.

Often called the king of fruits, mangoes of the Konkan region have a unique taste and the growers claim it is due to the unique geographical nature of the terrain. Joshi said three other organisations — Devgad Amba Utpakad Sangh, Kelshi Amba Utpakad Sangh and Ratnagiri Amba Utpatak Sangh — had joined the struggle to get GI tags.

After 10 years of legal wrangle, farmers from the region were granted the GI tag. Joshi, whose organisation has members from across five districts, said they have taken up the work to register farmers and their orchards.

“A farmer is granted the GI tag for his specific orchard after completion of the documentation. Land documents such as the 7/12 extract and other proofs have to be submitted, post which the orchard is allowed to be registered for 10 years,” he said.

Thanks to the massive outreach programme conducted by the cooperative body, till date, around 1,600 farmers have registered their plots which Joshi said is just a drop in the ocean. “We have around 1 lakh mango growers in the region. We must increase the registration in leaps and bounds,” he said.

The Sangh and its members have not shied away from taking legal recourse against the MNCs who had branded their products like fruit pulp or mango drinks using the term Alphonso. Legal notices were sent to media houses who had flashed stories about “Hapus from Africa” which saw the media houses drop the name Hapus.

At the local level, members take action against retailers who use the term Hapus without clarity on sourcing. “We had plans to QR code our mangoes which would allow the consumer to scan and get details about the farm, the farmer and how the fruit is processed. But the Covid crisis put a halt to this,” he said.

At the Mango festival organised by MahaFPC in Pune’s Gultekdi wholesale market, Shailendra Shinde Dasurkar, a farmer from the village of Umbarbadi in Taluka, also proudly displays the GI tag and number granted to his 1,800 mango trees.

“On ground, this allows us to assure the consumer that the money they have spent is on the right product. At mango festivals and other places, the GI registration is like a branding for quality and sourcing,” he said.