Today exotic imported fruits are widely available in India but regional varieties of mangoes remain out of reach of most of India.
Mumbai: It is a particularly Indian form of social media obsession. Elsewhere Twitter tirades and Facebook feuds erupt over favourite football teams or perfect pizza toppings, but here we get militant over mangoes. These aam-related affrays take two forms: People asserting that the best mangoes are the ones they grew up with, like Himsagar for Bengalis or Banganapallis for Tamilians or Chausa and Langras for people from the northern plains, or even more local varieties; and the same people fighting with Mumbaikars who insist that all this is absurd since everyone knows that Alphonsos are the best.
But this battle long predates digital media. In August 1886, for example, Dr Emmanuel Bonavia wrote a long article in the Pioneer, reprinted in the Times of India (ToI), on ???Bombay Mangoes and Others???. Bonavia was a botanist based in Lucknow who wrote a wonderful book on the citrus fruits of India, but here he focussed on mangoes after receiving some samples from Bombay.
Bonavia described the Bombay mangoes as ???yellow with a red cheek??? and said he found them ???not bad, but stringy, and inferior in flavour to scores of varieties we have in Upper India???. And he added, rather sarcastically, that ???one has heard so much of Mazagons and Alphonsos that one may perhaps have learnt to look on them with a sort of awe???.
Non-Mumbaikars make exactly this charge today, that the reputation of Alphonsos is simply hype, and Bonavia expanded the point. He suggested that these were just the mangoes the British first encountered in their original outposts in India ???and by repetition over a hundred years that they were the best this notion may have stuck to them, and that everything else out of Bombay was jungle mango.???
This back-and-forth of Alphonsos versus all others shows how little the debate has changed in 120 years. But Bonavia then makes a couple of good, and also still very relevant points. First he notes how fruits like apples and pears from South Africa and Australia were being successfully sent to the UK, despite the lengthy sea voyage and wonders why all the varieties of Indian mangoes can???t go as well.
Regular Sourcing of Fruit from Different Regions Difficult
Every more pertinently, Bonavia notes ???leaving, however, foreign trade out of the question, there seems room for extensive trade between Upper India and Bombay.??? He expresses shock at learning recently that in Crawford Market in Bombay, Alphonsos were being sold for ?6 a dozen ??? ???an enormous price when upcountry the choicest, in favourable seasons, sell for 20 or 25 for one rupee.??? There was an obvious opportunity for selling north Indian mangoes in Bombay.
It is tempting to imagine Bonavia???s consternation at learning, through some time travelling trick, that it???s not uncommon for Alphonsos in Crawford Market to sell for ?1,000 a dozen. But while that could be explained away as regular change in rupee value over more than a century, what???s harder to explain is the continued absence of mangoes from other parts of India. They still offer great value compared to Alphonsos ??? and, mostly, they are still unavailable.
We have, in fact, reached a truly odd situation with fruits. Today those South African and Australian fruits that Bonavia wrote about are now widely available in India ??? along with American apples, New Zealand kiwifruit and various other imported fruit like peaches from Jordan and mangosteens from Thailand.
But the same fruit sellers who heavily promote these imported fruit in Crawford Market won???t be able to supply mangoes from as close as Goa, where local varieties like Mankhurados and Hilarios are supposed to be outstanding. At best, closer to July, some sellers might stock Langras from Bihar, but that???s mainly because the Alphonso season is definitely over by then and since Langras are among the last mangoes to appear, it???s a way to keep mango mania going.
The situation might be extreme in Mumbai, but it???s not dissimilar around the country. Some years back an organic farmer who grows some of the best Banganapallis I have ever tasted told me how he tried sending his fruit to Delhi. He said he tried selling them at Dilli Haat, the capital???s showcase for regional products, but the fruit found few takers. Now he???s back to selling them in Chennai.
Another example is Imam Pasands, another variety from Tamil Nadu, whose reputation has been rising in recent years due to its combination of huge size, super smooth flesh and intensely sweet, yet refreshingly acid taste (and also, its unusual name). Imam Pasands have become something of a cult favourite, much spoken about and sought after ??? yet still very hard to find outside South India.
One problem might be that regular sourcing of these regional varieties is still difficult. Production is often limited and sporadic, without the aggregated sellers that supermarkets prefer to deal with. But Damodar Mall, CEO of Value Grocery Store Chain at Reliance Retail, notes that, while sourcing of agro products in India is usually a challenge, it can???t be the only explanation of the absence of mango varieties: ???Litchis from Bihar and strawberries from Mahabaleshwar are being distributed across India.??? Regional mango varieties could be distributed the same way, especially given the growth of more sophisticated transport and packaging solutions.
Mall feels that the issue is more fundamental. ???With mango varieties you are not just selling a fruit. You are selling a story.??? The involvement Indians have over mangoes is so deep, especially when it comes to varieties we grew up with, that it???s no longer a simple matter of logistics. We have memories of the trees these mangoes came from, of how they tasted when perfectly ripened on the tree and eaten when perfectly ripe ??? and perhaps also of how little they used to cost. Matching this in the market isn???t easy.
But Mall feels that this is an opportunity as much as a problem. Having a great story is, after all, a big advantage in marketing and distributors need to find ways to sell consumers on the story, as much as the fruit. ???It does require some external factors,??? he says. The most successful stories with foreign fruits have come as a result of sustained campaigns of sampling and brand building, often from producer or foreign government organisations, like Washington Apples or Zespri kiwifruit. ???People will now buy Washington apples at Rs 150 a kilo even when Indian apples are available at Rs 80 a kilo.???
As it happens, apples from Himachal were, in the past, the example of successful fruit marketing in India. But stagnation in renewing orchards and promoting varieties, rather than just the secondary produce of apple juice, has let that market slip.
But perhaps it could still be done by state agricultural organisations, in association with modern retail formats. ???Ecommerce will definitely be a way to sell mango varieties, especially if people have a chance to sample them in supermarkets,??? explains Mall.
The real irony is that the best example for regional mango varieties might be their nemesis ??? the Alphonso. Because, for all the attacks on it, it is the one variety with really wide awareness and availability. Alphonsos are available in most metros, can be bought or gifted online and, are even available for sale at Mumbai airport, ready to be picked up by passengers before they board flights.
Partly this is, as Bonavia noted120 years back, because of incessant repetition of their name, but other factors have also helped.
The red or yellow cardboard box, for example, with images of Alphonsos that has become standard across the market is an easy visual reminder of the variety.
Simple branding like that, combined with sampling and reassurance for consumers that they are getting the real thing, might finally help India???s amazing range of regional mangoes reach markets beyond just social media.
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