Hyderabad: Mango aficionados will have to shell out more money to buy their favorite fruit this season because the arrivals to the city have come down heavily. Unfavorable climatic conditions during the flowering stage of the mango crop resulted in the loss of the crop.
“Arrivals to the Koheda market in Hayathnagar have come down by about 60 percent compared to the previous year. It is because at the flowering stage the temperatures were high and it turned unfavorable for the crop, so yield is less,” said an official of the agriculture department.
On average, around 600 truckloads of mango arrive at the Koheda market on the city outskirts from different parts of the state. “Now only 300 truckloads of mangoes arrive every day. We don’t have hope of any increase in the arrivals in the future,” the official explained.
Usually, the mango flowerings start between December and March months in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra. The temperatures were high when the trees were at the flowering stage so the crop was damaged. “In Maharashtra also the crop suffered huge damage, so we can’t get good arrivals from the adjoining State as well,” the official pointed out.
Telangana markets get mangoes from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh every year.
A kilogram of mango now costs Rs. 100 a kilogram in the retail market, the prices will remain the same in the next couple of weeks.
The retail vendors on the street point out that other than the low supply and great demand at the market, the prices of fuel increased forcing them to increase the cost of the commodity as well. “Can’t help the prices at the wholesale market at high, again we spent huge amounts for transportation and then storage. So we have to keep all in mind before fixing the price,” said a fruit vendor.
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