Trade with Commodities: Mango exports to take the sea route

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Mango exports to take the sea route

Apeda To Pay Exporters Rs 3.5 Lakh Or 50% In Subsidy For Losses Incurred In Transit

IN AN effort to reduce the landed cost of the fruit, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda), the nodal agency for promoting trade, is experimenting with a plan to send mangoes by sea to the US and Japanese markets instead of air-freighting them. Anticipating losses that exporters might face, since the highly perishable commodity will take longer to reach its destination, Apeda will give a subsidy of up to Rs 3.5 lakh or 50% of the losses, whichever is less.
    Trial runs will start in the current season. Sources in the Apeda and the Maharashtra State Agricultural and Marketing Board (MSAMB) confirmed this to ET requesting anonymity due to the model code of conduct in force till the last round of voting is over.
    India started exporting mangoes to the US from 2007 and to Japan a year earlier. But due to the high cost of air freight, Indian mangoes sold at about $25-30, while Mexican mangoes were priced at $15-$20.
    "If we are able to send mangoes by sea, our prices will be at par with the Mexican," said a senior Apeda official. The export promotion agency has also developed a sea protocol, which will be tested this year. India has been focusing on the US and the Japanese markets since these are high end markets and can offer good rates.
    "If we are able to sell high volumes of our fruits in these markets, it will give us credibility and open up other markets," said the official. MSAMB and the Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation are also thinking of extending help to mango exporters by bearing some part of their losses. India exports alphonso and kesar varieties to the US and kesar to Japan. Mangoes meant for the US market are irradiated at the Lasalgaon irradiation facility in Nashik, while those meant for Japan are irradiated at Vashi in Navi Mumbai. This first batch of mangoes of the current season was dispatched to Japan on Wednesday.
    The Lasalgaon irradiation facility of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is the country's only such facility for mango exports. In 2008, nearly 350 tonnes of mangoes were exported to the US from this facility.
    "Mango is a delicate fruit, government support is necessary for its despatch by sea. We are trying to rope in some private players who have earlier sent mangoes to Japan by sea, to develop a sea protocol," said an MSAMB official.
Exports to US
jump 60% in April
NEW DELHI: INDIAN mango exports have started on a good note. The total quantity shipped so far has already recorded a 60% growth in the first month of the current season even as production is estimated to have declined. Mango exports to the US stood at 31.7 tonnes in April this year compared to around 20 tonnes in the corresponding onth last year, according to Apeda. During the 2008 mango season, starting from April, India had exported 143 tonnes of mangoes to the US valued at around Rs 2 crore, it said. The US allowed import of Indian mangoes in 2008. — PTI