India shipped a consignment of 2.5 MT mangoes to South Korea

NEW DELHI, 23 MAY 2021: APEDA in collaboration with the Indian embassy, Seoul, and Indian Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ICCK), organized a Virtual Buyer Seller Meet (VBSM) for boosting mango exports to South Korea.

Senior officials from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), the Embassy of India, ICCK, exporters from India, and importers from South Korea participated in the VBS.

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

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

This was the first export consignment sent by IKSEZ, which is a subsidiary of IFFCO, a multi-state cooperative with a membership of 36,000 societies. There is a possibility of more exports of mangoes to South Korea this season. IFFCO Kisan SEZ has an agreement with Meejaim, South Korea for supplying 66 MTs of mango this season. Andhra Pradesh's horticulture department also collaborated in this endeavor.

The mangoes to South Korea were processed at A P Agros Integrated Packhouse and VHT System, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, and the unit is financially assisted by APEDA for facilitating the fresh fruits and vegetable exports from the region.

Nearly 400 MT of fresh fruits and vegetables has been exported from the packhouse. It caters to the southern states for export of horticulture produce for export to the European Union and non-EU countries. In the current season, 30 MT of mangoes has been exported to the EU, UK Ireland, middle east countries, etc.

Mango in India is also referred to as ‘king of fruit' 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 the 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, the USA, Japan, and South Korea.

Image credit: istockphoto.com