India has boosted agricultural exports, by beginning shipments of juicy varieties of mangoes such as Kesar, Alphonso and Banganapalle to South Korea and Japan. Devendra Kumar Singh, chairman of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (APEDA), who was in South Korea promoting exports of mangoes, said the response has been very encouraging and “we may not meet the huge demand this season”.
Although permission for ‘market access’ for mango exports to these two countries was received last year, India could not export the fruit as the growing season (April-June) was already over. According to the chief executive officer of Kay Bee Exports, the first consignment of mango to South Korea fetched a good price of $3-4 a kg. “This season, we anticipate around 50-100 tonne of exports from India and the during next year the quantity of exports is expected to increase.”
India has asked the South Korean government to provide more food inspectors to inspect the consignment priors to export.