A week-long Indian mango promotion programme began in Bahrain today where 16 varieties of the fruit including three Geographical Indications (GI) certified Khirsapati&Lakshmanbhog (West Bengal), Zardalu (Bihar) are being displayed.

The varieties of mangoes are currently being sold through 13 stores of the group in Bahrain. The mangoes were sourced from farmers in Bengal and Bihar by APEDA registered exporter.

APEDA has been initiating measures to boost mango exports from the non-traditional regions and states. APEDA has been conducting virtual buyer-seller meets and festival to promote mango exports. It recently organised mango festival in Berlin, Germany

In a bid to increase mangoes exports to South Korea, APEDA in collaboration with Indian embassy, Seoul and Indian Chamber of Commerce in Korea, last month organised a Virtual Buyer Seller Meet.

Due to the ongoing Covid19 pandemic, the export promotion programmes were not possible to be organized physically. APEDA took a lead to organize a virtual meet to provide a platform to the exporters and importers of mangoes from India and South Korea.

For the first time in this season, India has shipped a consignment of 2.5 Metric Tonne (MTs) of Geographical Indication (GI) certified Banganapalli & other variety Survarnarekha mangoes sourced from farmers in Krishna &Chittor districts of Andhra Pradesh recently.

The mangoes exported to South Korea, were treated, cleaned & shipped from the APEDA assisted and registered packhouse & vapor heat treatment facility at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh and exported by IFFCO Kisan SEZ (IKSEZ).

Mango in India is also referred to as ‘king of fruits’ and referred to as Kalpavriksha (wish granting tree) in ancient scriptures. While most of the states in India have mango plantations, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka have a major share in total production of the fruit.Alphonso, Kesar, Totapuri and Banganpalli are leading export varieties from India. Mango exports primarily take place in three forms: fresh mango, mango pulp, and mango slice.

Mangoes are processed by the APEDA registered packhouse facilities and then exported to various regions and countries including the Middle East, European Union, USA, Japan and South Korea.

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YB/SS