India shipped 2.5 MTs of GI certified mangoes to South Korea

India has shipped a consignment of 2.5 Metric Tonne (MTs) of Geographical Indication (GI) certified Banganapalli and other variety Survarnarekha mangoes sourced from farmers in Krishna and Chittoor districts of Andhra Pradesh, informed Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Friday.

In a bid to increase mango exports to South Korea, the Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Agency (APEDA) in collaboration with Indian embassy, Seoul and the Indian Chamber of Commerce in Korea (ICCK), also organised a Virtual Buyer Seller Meet (VBSM).

Senior officials from APEDA, Embassy of India, ICCK, exporters from India and importers from South Korea participated in the VBSM organised on Thursday.

According to a press statement from the Ministry of Commerce, the mangoes exported to South Korea, were treated, cleaned and shipped from the APEDA assisted and registered packhouse and vapor heat treatment facility at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh and exported by IFFCO Kisan SEZ (IKSEZ).

This was the first export consignment sent by IKSEZ, which is a subsidiary of IFFCO, a multi-state cooperative with a membership of 36,000 societies.

The ministry said that there is the possibility of more exports of mangoes to South Korea this season.

"IFFCO Kisan SEZ has an agreement with Meejaim, South Korea for supplying 66 MTs of mango this season. Andhra Pradesh horticulture department also collaborated in this endeavour," it said.

The mangoes to South Korea were processed at A P Agros Integrated Packhouse & VHT System, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh and the unit is financially assisted by APEDA for facilitating the fresh fruits and vegetables exports from the region.

"Nearly 400 MTs of fresh fruits and vegetables has been exported from the packhouse. It caters to the southern states for export of horticulture produce for export to the European Union and non-EU countries. In the current season, 30 MTs of mangoes have been exported to EU, UK Ireland, Middle East countries, etc.," the ministry said.

Mango in India is also referred to as 'king of fruits' and referred to as Kalpavriksha (wish-granting tree) in ancient scriptures. While most of the states in India have mango plantations, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka have a major share in the total production of the fruit.

Alphonso, Kesar, Totapuri and Banganpalli are leading export varieties from India. Mango exports primarily take place in three forms: fresh mango, mango pulp, and mango slice.

Mangoes are processed by the APEDA registered packhouse facilities and then exported to various regions and countries including Middle East, European Union, USA, Japan and South Korea.

( With inputs from ANI )