Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Common man cannot afford Alphonso mangoes' that was published in Newsband

Common man cannot afford Alphonso mangoes

By Dinesh Kamath

APMC: Alphonso mangoes are entering the market in big number but the common man finds them too costly and can’t purchase them. The minimum cost of these mangoes is found to be more than Rs 2500 a dozen. Hence for a common man there is no point in even bargaining. The price of these mangoes do show promise of coming down after half a month or so. But if these mangoes have to be within the reach of common man then he will  have to wait for the season to come almost to an end.

These mangoes are arriving from Ratnagiri. The scent coming out from these mangoes makes one’s mouth water. This fruit is not exactly round. It is kind of oval in shape. It is yellowish and sometimes orange in colour. The reason for these fruits arriving on time was that the rainfall did not occur at the wrong time and the fruits got enough time to bloom.

The mango-sellers at APMC Market have a hectic time. They have to clean, sort, pack and dispatch the mangoes. There has been no problem in the matter of obtaining these fruits on time. But the fruit merchants feel sorry for the buyers who find the price of these mangoes too high and hence unable to afford them.

The buyers are waiting for cheaper mangoes to enter the market. Alphonso is not within their reach. So they are waiting for the entry of kesar, mankurad, mulgoa and pairi. The fruit sellers have assured them that cheaper and affordable mangoes will start pouring into the market within few weeks. Sometimes the mangoes come in small shape and this is when their prices become less and they become affordable for common man to buy and relish. The buyers who try to purchase mangoes directly from APMC market many a time feel discouraged when they find the whole stock having been purchased by the retailers. These buyers then have no choice but to buy these mangoes from retailers at extra price. It is also found that the Navi Mumbai retailers have to compete with their Mumbai counterparts while buying the stock from the wholesalers in APMC market. Navi Mumbai merchants then make an issue of it by saying that local sellers should get preference over the outsiders while buying the mangoes in wholesale from APMC Market.  

However, the business at APMC market is not bad as compared to last year and before that when it comes to mangoes. Other fruits are never a problem since most of them are available all the year round.

There are many fruit sellers who prefer to sell other fruits rather then sell Alphonso mangoes which, according to them, have no takers owing to their high rate. They find it risky to buy Alphonso since if the people don’t buy them they get rotten and it is the sellers who suffer a loss.