South Koreans have finally got a chance to taste Indian mangoes, with some of the varieties hitting the retail outlets in Seoul at the end of the week. Consignments of a few varieties of the `King of fruits' reached Seoul, with airports like the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), Hyderabad helping in flying them out to the new destination.

The initial commercial consignment of 2.5 tonnes of Indian mangoes was airlifted through its Cargo Terminal, which is operated by Hyderabad Menzies Air Cargo Pvt. Ltd (HMACPL).

In June 2016, the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in India Cho Hyun had told BusinessLine in a interview that after intensive discussions all the hurdles for exports were sorted out and the mangoes would be going to South Korea soon.

India exports some 4,500 tonnes of mangoes every year. The fruit goes mainly to West Asia, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Exports to Japan, South Asian countries and the EU have been low due to import issues there.

RGIA role in exports:

Teams from the GMR Hyderabad Airports Limited, which operates the airport and HMACPL haveworked with the farmer community at Vizianagaram facility for developing a pack-house, creating markets, commissioning this project with requisite approvals from Government and exporting Suvarnarekha variety of mangoes to South Korea.

With this, RGIA becomes the first airport in India to facilitate export of mangoes to South Korea directly from a farm-based infrastructure. Mangoes being a seasonal fruit of high demand, export volume to South Korea is expected to grow up to 10 tonnes per day for the rest of the season, it said in a statement..

The Cargo operator has a coordination committee comprising of APEDA, National Plant Protection Organization (NPPO), Korean Delegation and Plant Quarantine to guide the farmers to compete with international export norms..

The GHIAL & HMACPL are in the process of identifying and enabling similar infrastructure across the catchment areas in Telangana State, Andhra Pradesh, Northern Karnataka and Eastern Maharashtra among others, that can provide the requisite processing facilities to to boost the prospects of India’s Mango exports to South Korea.

According to Sudhakar, DGM of APEDA, "Telangana and AP are the largest producers of mangoes in India with 25 per cent share, of this Banganapallii, Suvarnarekha, Neelam, Cherukurasam are the most popular varieties. Exports provide attractive rates giving better returns to producers and farmers":

The CEO of GHIAL SGK Kishore says so far Hyderabad has been India's Pharma capital and the airport had garnered a lion's share of pharma exports. Our effort to diversify into perishables export base has been realised now with the initiative of Mango exports to South Korea.We will establish a dedicated perishables handling facility at the airport soon.

RGIA has been collaborating with various exporters and regulatory bodies to make this feat possible. Soon Indian mangoes would compete in Mango Festival happening at Seoul with varieties from Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand and Philippines.

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