Mangoes lose flavour with Russian exporters

The king of fruits may be conquering the US, Japan, Europe and West Asian markets but Russia, a promising market, will be missing from the list this year.

Russian authorities have banned the exports of agriculture commodities from India after detecting the kharpa beetle pest in a consignment of sesame seeds that landed in Russia couple of months back.

Mango growers in Gujarat, one of the major mango growing states in the country, have already lost export orders following the ban. However, the situation has been mitigated by the strong demand in the US and other countries.

Senior officials of Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (India) (APEDA) has asked the Russian authorities to reconsider the decision.

"Buyers from Russia declined to purchase mangoes citing the ban and all my orders stood cancelled. Though a small chunk of mangoes from Gujarat are exported to Russia, there is huge potential for in the market there," said Valsad-based mango grower and exporter Nirav Desai, who exported 20 tonnes of mangoes to Russia in 2007-08.

According to APEDA data , fresh mango exports to Russia stood at 4.94 tonnes worth Rs 8.12 lakh in 2006-07.

The US hazard
Meanwhile, Indian food products, most of which are widely consumed here, are increasingly getting rejected in the US.

According to the monthly refusal list issued by the Operational and Administrative System for Import Support (OASIS) in January, Indian exports were subject to third highest number of refusal actions, with 115 cases.

Beverages and Haldiram Exports were some of the other known firms whose names featured in the refusal list for the last three months.