GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd., has started exporting mangoes to South Korea.
The initial commercial consignment of 2.5 tonnes of Indian mangoes was exported for the first time to South Korea through its Cargo Terminal operated by Hyderabad Menzies Air Cargo Pvt Ltd.,(HMACPL), the GHIAL announced here on Saturday.
With this Rajiv Gandhi International Airport becomes the first airport in India to facilitate export of mangoes to South Korea directly from a farm-based infrastructure. Mangoes being a seasonal fruit of high demand, export volume to South Korea is expected to grow up to 10 tonnes per day for the rest of the season, it said.
GHIAL and HMACPL teams worked with the farmer community at Vizianagaram facility for developing a pack-house, creating markets, commissioning this project with requisite approvals from Government and exporting Suvarnarekha variety of mangoes to South Korea, a release stated.
A coordination committee comprising HMACPL, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (APEDA) , National Plant Protection Organisation (NPPO) Korean delegation and Plant Quarantine guided the farmers to compete with international export norms. The GHIAL and HMACPL were also in the process of identifying and enabling similar infrastructure across the catchments areas in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, northern Karnataka and eastern Maharashtra among others that could provide the requisite processing facility.
APEDA DGM Sudhakar welcoming the first shipment at RGIA said Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were the largest producers of mangoes in India with 25 per cent share of which Banganapalli, Suvarnarekha, Cherukurasam and Neelum were the most famous varieties. GHIAL CEO S.G.K.Kishore said the initiative of mango exports would go a long way in expanding their base and in strengthening their global foot print.
