Mango farmers got double what they received last year at the Nunna Mango Market because of a steep fall in arrivals and abolition of the traditional ‘secret auctions’.
Nunna Market secretary Anil Kumar said that last year mango farmers brought 61,110 tonnes to the market and the fruit sold for an average of Rs. 5,000 a tonne compared to Rs. 10,000 they got this year. The marketing department earned Rs. 61 lakh as marketing cess. Farmers kept bringing in fruit to the market right up to July 23 last year.
This year there was a marked poor arrivals to the Nunna market and there were indications that the arrivals would trickle to a stop in a week or a maximum of two. This year farmers brought 46,000 tonnes till date and the marketing department earned only Rs. 46.68 lakh as cess. The farmers, however, got an average price of Rs. 10,000 a tonne, Mr. Anil Kumar said.
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Mango is exported to all the major metros up-country from the Nunna market which is dubbed as Asia’s biggest mango market. Mangoes, mainly Banganapalli, Thothapuri and rasalu varieties were brought here from 1.6 lakh hectares of mango gardens in Krishna district and also from in surrounding districts like West Godvari and Khammam. While 60 per cent of the fruit brought was Banganapalli, 30 per cent was Thotapuri and the remaining all the other varieties including the highly revered rasalu.
In the past few years, there has been a marked change in the trend with traders going straight to gardens for purchase. Till last year, the auction was not open. The auction was secret with the traders making bids using secret ‘masonic-type’ handshakes that too with their hands hidden under hand-kerchiefs . The price of the mango was written on a board after the secret auction and farmers had no alternative but to sell.