Malda mangoes for London

Statesman News Service

MALDA, May 31: Mr Kanailal Mandal and Mr Saifuddin Ali, two successful mango growers of Malda, have marketed their produce to London this year for the first time. They cultivated the himsagar variety this year and adhered to controlled spraying of pesticides and quality bio-fertilizer in their orchards. The local market rate is Rs 10 per kg for himsagar but exporter, Mr Anup Dutta, struck a deal with mango growers at Rs 16 per kg and placed an order for 12 quintals of himsagar at their orchards yesterday. It was learnt that a refrigerated van carrying the 12-quintal himsagar mangoes left for Kolkata today. From there, the mangoes would be flown to London. It is for the first time that the himsagar variety is being exported to London, district officials said.Mr Anup Dutta, who exports vegetables to London at regular intervals, had the himsagar mangoes packed at the Malda pack house after having them de-shaped, graded and disinfected. The weight of a mango averages 200 to 250 grams. Mr Dutta is now planning to export Malda’s laxmanbhog variety to London.Reportedly, officials of Dabur have visited the mango orchards at Malda to purchase himsagar mangoes but the deal is yet to be finalised. Malda development officials have already selected 50 mango growers from the district to market himsagar, laxmanbhogh, langra and amrapali varieties to London. The Horticulture and Food Processing Development Corporation has desperately been trying to promote Malda mangoes in the foreign market for the last three years. They had been displaying local products in Singapore and other countries. The Centre has declared Malda and Murshidabad as mango and lichee export zones and allotted funds for their development. But the Central government’s proposed mango and lichee research station has not yet started functioning under the supervision of the Indian Council for Agriculture Research.The proposal was conceived 10 years ago for which a plot was selected in English Bazaar.