Junagadh District News – Kesar Mango Keri Talala

“Kesar Mango may be out of bound for ‘aam’ aadmi”.

Global warming has claimed its latest victim-mangoes in Junagadh district as well as the whole of Saurashtra region, taking the king of fruit out of reach of the general populace.

On Tuesday, as the auction of Junagadh's famous Kesar mangoes began in the Talala Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) yard, it was declared that the mango crop produce had dropped by a major 40 percent. However, the price of mangoes saw no such fall as they rose inversely proportional to the mango yield this year.

Talala APMC yard chairman Harsukh Jarsaniya said the auction of mangoes officially began from today and the price of a 10 kg box of mango now ranges from Rs 300 to Rs 600.

"Last year, a total of nine lakh mango boxes had been sold in the Talala yard. However, this year the astronomical prices might ensure that they do not even touch the three-lakh mark," he said.

Kesar Keri Mangoes Junagadh Saurashtra Gujarat India

Mango arrival to be late in Gujarat this summer.

The king of fruits might arrive a tad late this summer in Gujarat.

According to experts, the arrival of mango in the state could be as late as 15-20 days due to irregular winter which seems to have damaged the flowering.

As per the Junagadh Agriculture University(JAU), the winter had been erratic this year leaving damaged flowers of mango, especially of the 'Kesar' variety in Saurashtra region of Gujarat. "Weather condition during winter this year was not favourable for mango in Gujarat. Right in the middle of flowering time, the climate became erratic resulting in lot of damage. As a result mango arrival will be quite late in the market this summer", said BK Kikani, vice chancellor, Junagadh Agriculture University.

Gujarat has approximately three lakh hectares area under mango cultivation. Areas like Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Valsad, Navsari, Sasan and Talala Gir, Visavadar, Savarkundala and Kutch have gained prominence for mango cultivation in the state. Last year about 10 lakh boxes, with each box containing 10 kg, arrived in the Talala Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) which is the main market for Kesar variety of mango in India.

Talking about the variety, Harsukhbhai Zarsaniya, secretary of Talala APMC said, "Kesar mangos arrival will start from May 10-15 this year. Generally it starts from last week of March every year. However, flowering has been late on mango. In normal condition flowers blossom between end of January and middle of February. But this year it was late as winter was not in its normal flow."

"It is too early to predict about production of mango, but yes arrival this season will be definitely late. Weather should also get hotter now. Otherwise it will also affect prices as bad weather can damage the products," said Batuksinh Jadeja of Ashapura Farm & Nursery from Kutch.