Open auction system a boon for mango farmers

Farmers are happy with the transparency which ensures a fair price for the farmer’s produce, but untimely rains earlier this year have thrown a wet blanket over the stock of the king of fruits

The open auction system introduced at the wholesale mango market at Nunna has started yielding remunerative prices for farmers for their produce. Earlier the marketing officials used to fix the price of mangoes depending on the variety and quality through a ‘secret handshake’. In the old system, poor farmers did not have any say and they were forced to sell their produce at the price fixed by the marketing officials even if it was not remunerative to them. There were also allegations that some marketing officials colluded with commission agents and fruit merchants in fixing the price of mangoes much to the dismay of farmers.

Minister for Irrigation Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, who inspected the Nunna mango market recently, directed the marketing officials to introduce an open auction system to ensure a better price for farmers. He also asked them to take steps to prevent fruit merchants from forming syndicates to deny remunerative price to mango farmers. Nunna Mango Growers Association secretary Ramakrishna noted that the crop yield fell drastically this year due to adverse weather conditions. Untimely rainfall in Krishna and West Godavari, major mango producing districts in the State, hit the fruit output.

“The open auction system is yielding good results. It is conducted at the market every evening in the presence of merchants and mango farmers in a transparent manner,” he said. There are about 80 wholesale shops at the Nunna Market, one of the biggest mango markets in Asia. A majority of wholesale shops virtually wore a deserted look due to poor arrivals of the fruit due to low yield this season. At present, the market is getting a maximum of 500 tonnes of mangoes a day.

About 60 truckloads of mangoes are being exported to Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and other States. Popular mango varieties Banginapalli, Pedda Rasalu, Chinna Rasalu and Totapuri account for major share of mango exports. The price of mangoes ranges from Rs 10,000 to Rs 23,000 per tonne depending on the size of fruit, quality and variety. Banginapalli variety is the costliest being sold at Rs 23,000 per tonne in the auction.

SK Bade Hazarth, a fruit merchant who is readying his yard to handle mango imports and exports in the middle of the season, said, “The quantum of business done so far at the market is nothing when compared to last season’s turnover. Even if the arrivals of the fruit at the market have picked up in recent days, the size and quality of the fruit are not good denying farmers a better price for their produce. The fruit did not grow big this season due to untimely rainfall during the ripening period.”

SK Nisarmohadi, a farmer of Pendyala village in Kanchikacherla mandal, said, “Krishna district did not top in mango output this season. Mango growers are hit by the untimely rainfall. However the newly launched open auction system has proved to be a boon to farmers in ensuring remunerative price for their produce.”

By Sistla Dakshina Murthy