Reliance interested in Malda litchi

Statesman News Service

MALDA, May 23: A team of Reliance Retail Group would visit litchi orchards that are farming organically, in Malda tomorrow. According to the Malda mango development officer Mr SN Khara, the RRG has expressed willingness to procure a decent quantity of the fruit from Malda. The MMDO said that a RRG representative called him today expressing interest to visit plantations growing ‘Bombai’ variety litchi to finalise procurement of the bio produce. It was learnt that supervised by the horticulture department, 400 acres of land have been dedicated to litchi plantation applying controlled spraying and organic fertiliser in Malda and Murshidabad districts although the total land under litchi in the two districts is much more. According to figures obtained from the horticulture department, litchi is cultivated over 931 hectares of land in Malda district and 1600 hectares in Murshidabad district, engaging thousands of farmers. The two districts collectively produce about 4500 MT litchi a year, the officials, said. According to Mr Khara, the RRG would pay the price of litchi to the West Bengal Food processing and Horticulture Development Corporation, if the deal takes off and the WBFPHDC would in turn make the payments to the farmers. In addition to the RRG, a team of Kolkata-based exporters would visit mango orchards growing the Himsagar, Lyangda, and Lakshmanbhog varieties organically on 25 May to finalise the contract with the farmers. It is expected that the interested exporters would strike a deal with the farmers paying in advance for proposed consignments. According to the Mr Khara, the Kolkata based mango buyers’ team would visit Malda Pack House and interact with the farmers on choice and demand of litchi and mangoes in foreign countries. “They may buy at least 30 MT mangoes from Malda,” the official, said. It was learnt that the exporters would export Malda mangoes to the UK and other countries.