The fragrance of Hapus or Alphonso mangoes that usually hangs thick over Pune’s Gultekdi market around Akshaya Tritiya feels faint this year. Boxes are fewer, prices are steep, and the farmers who grow Maharashtra’s most prized fruit are left counting losses they say are unlike anything in recent memory.
Anand Marathe, a mango farmer from Rajapur taluka in Ratnagiri district, has been in this business for 25 years. This season has tested him like no other.
“Only about 20 per cent of last year’s produce is available this year. I used to send 100 boxes a day to Mumbai and Pune combined, but now I can barely put together 20,” he said.
The damage, he explains, was inflicted by a string of unfavourable conditions: unseasonal rain and sharp diurnal temperature swings that disrupted flowering at the most critical stage. The January flowering was severely affected, and the February flowering, which typically yields fruit after mid-May, is expected to be equally disappointing.
“Between February and mid-April, I would normally send around 4,000 boxes to the Pune and Mumbai markets. This year, I managed only 500,” Marathe said.
The losses have forced farmers to rethink even basic logistics. “The produce is so little that individual transportation doesn’t make financial sense anymore. Now, four or five of us pool our harvest together and share the transport costs,” he said.
Even the investment made in preparing the fields has not been recovered.
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For Marathe, who employs 30 migrant labourers from Nepal each season for his 1,000-tree plantation, the reduced harvest has had a human cost too. “I had to send 20 of them back. There simply wasn’t enough work,” he said.
He urges the government to act quickly on crop insurance claims. “The relief usually comes around Diwali, but by then it is too late for us to prepare for the next cycle. If claims are settled by June, we can at least begin getting the farm ready for the Kharif season,” he said.
The season that wasn’t
The story is similar across the Konkan belt. Narendra Desai, who manages a 5,000-tree plantation with his family in Pavas village in Ratnagiri, said the season had raised hopes before dashing them.
“Rainfall last year was satisfactory, and we expected a bumper harvest. But what followed was deeply unfavourable. Nights turned cold while afternoons touched 35 degrees Celsius – those extreme swings created severe stress on the trees exactly when they needed stable conditions to flower,” he said.
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The Desai family has seen a roughly 50 per cent drop in overall harvest this year. “We are cautiously hopeful that April supply may hold steady, but May remains uncertain given the weather pattern,” Desai added.
A pattern
Dr Vivek Bhide, chairman of Hapus Amba Utpadak Vikreta Sahakari Sangh, has watched over the Alphonso trade for over 40 years, and what he sees today worries him deeply. “The only thing predictable about the weather now is its unpredictability. This year has been one of the worst we have seen. Everything seemed on track until December, but the sudden cold spell in January and February undid all of it,” he said.
The Alphonso’s first flowering, locally called mohar, requires temperatures between 19 and 24 degrees Celsius for the fruit to set. This year, temperatures fell below 10 degrees Celsius in parts of the Konkan, causing flowers to drop before the fruit could form. Early morning dew compounded the problem by triggering fungal attacks on the blossoms.
Similar conditions, he noted, have played out across Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Palghar, and Thane, effectively every district that grows Alphonso in Maharashtra. “When the erratic rains were followed by sharp temperature swings, the trees’ ability to complete their reproductive cycle was badly disrupted,” he said, pointing to climate change as the deeper, longer-term driver of what is fast becoming an annual pattern of distress.
Prices climb, supply falls short
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The impact has rippled all the way to Pune’s Gultekdi market, where traders have been watching arrivals closely.
Aniruddha Mansukh, a fruit trader at Gultekdi, said the contrast with a normal Akshaya Tritiya season is stark. “This time of year, we usually see 13,000 to 14,000 boxes arriving daily. Right now, we are getting 5,000 to 7,000 at best,” he said.
Prices reflect the scarcity. A dozen Alphonso mangoes are selling between Rs 800 and Rs 1,500, while a box of five to six dozen ranges from Rs 3,000 to Rs 6,000. Premium Alphonso is commanding as much as Rs 8,000 per box. Mansukh expects some easing after Akshaya Tritiya, when supply could gradually pick up.
Fellow trader Mauli Ambekar added about the effects on the food processing industry. “Last year was a record season. This year, we are at barely 20 per cent of that supply. It has hit not just the fresh fruit market but the entire processing chain – mango pulp manufacturers and others are all struggling to source enough fruit,” he said.
