The Hindu Business Line : Alphonsos and Hapoos at bargain prices

PUNEITES who are used to visiting exhibitions and sales hosted by FMCG companies, housing finance corporations and crafts organisations, spent the last week thronging to an exhibition of a different kind.

Mangoes worth over Rs 30 lakh were sold at a `Festival of mangoes' organised by the Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB) here, which saw farmers from ten districts of the State selling directly to buyers.

An estimated 10,000 people are believed to have visited the week-long festival and most went back having bought their favourite summer-time purchase, the Alphonso mango. With a chain of middlemen between the farmer and the seller, prices of Alphonso mangoes has steadily risen over the last few years, even touching the Rs 600-800 /dozen mark at the beginning of the season in March.

With the best of the lot from farmers being directly purchased by large middlemen who send consignments to metro cities or overseas where price realisations are higher, Puneites have found the fruit no longer affordable.The MSAMB's mango festival has proved to be a win-win situation for both the farmer and the end consumer with the former getting better realisation for his effort and the consumer being able to buy the fruit at more affordable prices, since the middleman's commission is eliminated.

While prices of Alphonso still hovers at Rs 250-300/dozen in the retail market, consumers visiting the festival went home with the fruit at an affordable Rs 150-200/dozen.

Farmers from Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Thane, Aurangabad, Jalna, Latur and Devgad, home to the best-selling Devgad Hapoos participated in the festival, which also saw other varieties such as Kesar and the Paayari being sold.

Women savings groups in the city also participated in the event, selling home made products such as mango pickles and preserves, not to mention the delicious summer time raw mango drink, Panhe.

The women's group also hosted cookery shows and mango recipe contests designed to make the presentation of the fruit more innovative.

"The response to the event has been so enthusiastic that we are now thinking of making this an annual affair so that everybody benefits from it," spokesperson of the MSAMB said.

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