This year, only 29 certificates have been issued by the agriculture department for export of mangoes. This is not even 20% of the number of export certificates issued last year. This year, the export has been mainly of the Alphonso variety from Surat.
Sources in Talala market yard said that mango export has not picked up yet. "First, it was the ban by the European Union (EU) and then mangoes from Pakistan captured the market in Arab countries,'' they said.
They said that the quality of the mango was also not good this year. And to make the matter worse for the farmers, the crop fell drastically this year because of frequent unseasonal rains in Amreli, Junagadh and other parts of the region.
Against a yield of 11.85 lakh boxes of 10kg each in 2013, this year the yield at the market yard is only 6.86 lakh boxes. "We expected the yield this year to be around 7.5 lakh boxes,'' they said, adding that usually around 30% of the produce is exported to EU and UAE.
Prakash Khakkar, an exporter from South Gujarat, says: "After the ban by EU, the Alphonso variety from South Gujarat is being exported to the US, New Zealand and in small quantity to UAE. The export this year is only from South Gujarat and that too of the Alphonso variety."
