Indian Mangoes Shipped To The USA For The First Time By Sea
Pune, 4th June 2022: With the joint efforts of Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board, APEDA and Sanap Agro Animals Pvt. Ltd., Indian mangoes were shipped to the United States of America (USA) by sea on Friday (3rd June) for the first time.
The mangoes were exported from the Agriculture Marketing Board’s Radiation Facilitation Center at Vashi. This is a historic moment for Indian mango exports, said Sunil Pawar, State Marketing Director and Executive Director, Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board. The Director of Bioscience, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Dr. T. K. Ghanti was present as the chief guest.
Pawar said, “Export of mangoes by sea will reduce the transportation cost of mangoes by 10%, which will enable Indian mangoes to compete in the US market with mangoes from other countries. This is a very important event in the history of Indian mango, which will revolutionize the demand and export of mangoes.”
Dr T K Ghanti said that Bhabha Atomic Research Center will do its utmost to help the Agricultural Marketing Board in increasing the export and storage capacity of agricultural products. Dr Ghanti also appealed that “We are doing a great job in research, however, the Agricultural Marketing Board should work further to make our research available to the farmers.”
During the occasion, Deputy Manager of Agriculture Marketing Board Dr Bhaskar Patil gave detailed information about the process and work done for mango export. During the year 2019, Bhabha Atomic Research Center, Apeda, Krishi Panan Mandal jointly experimented with mango export by sea. The experiment involved hot water treatment of mangoes, chemical treatment of cold water for the shelf-life of mangoes developed by Bhabha Atomic Research Center, irradiation process, refrigeration and storage of mangoes in cold storage. The container was opened after 38 days. The mango in this container remained in good condition. However, some errors were found in it and it was necessary to correct them and retest them. But that did not happen during the Covid-19 period.
Continuing the process this year, from May 30, all the mangoes were processed and stored in phases in cold storage. A total of 16,560 kg of mangoes have been shipped by container and will reach the port near Newark, New Jersey, USA.
About 1200 tonnes of mangoes were exported from India to America in 2012. In 2021 and 2022, the Covid-19 restrictions prevented mango export to the United States. Currently, mango exports to the US are being made entirely by air. As a result, exporters have to pay around Rs 550 per kg for airfare, making Indian mangoes more expensive in the US market. Thus, transporting mangoes by sea is a huge achievement and a big step in the history of exporting Indian mangoes.
