The juicy, delicious “king” of Indian fruits is set to tickle South Korea’s taste buds soon as the first air shipment of Banganapalle mangoes headed east on Thursday.
The Agricultural and Processed Food Export Development Agency (APEDA) sent the export shipment weighing 2.4 tons of the mango variety, which is a registered product with a geographical indication (GI).
IFFCO Kisan, which works with 36,000 cooperatives across the country, convinced its South Korean technology partner to purchase the first shipment of horticultural products from India. The fruits were sorted and processed in the steam heat treatment facility in Tirupati.
The chairman of APEDA, M. Angamuthu, had the broadcast on Thursday morning in accordance with the COVID-19 guidelines in the presence of the managing director of IFFCO Kisan SEZ, Rakesh Kapur, the chairman of Meejaim (South Korea), Michelle Boos, and the additional director for horticulture “virtually” canceled M. Venkateswarlu.
The move was part of the Union Government’s initiative to promote the export of GI recognized agricultural products.
In addition to a small number of the ‘Suvarnarekha’ and ‘Sindhura’ varieties, the program mainly contains Banganapalle mangoes. So far this season the state has exported 26 tons of mangoes to New Zealand, Germany, England and Ireland. Last year around 60 tons were exported due to the COVID-19 situation and the nationwide lockdown.
Export target
This year the state has set itself an ambitious target of exporting 300 tons by the end of June. “We got the fruit from the Piler and Rayachoti areas. The beneficiary farmers will receive an additional minimum income of GBP 20 per kg over local market prices, ”said Deputy Director (Horticulture) B. Srinivasulu The Hindu.
APEDA has provided IFFCO Kisan with full support in ensuring trouble-free export throughout the process of sourcing, processing, packaging and shipping the products to South Korea.