Mango production in northern India this season is expected to fall well short of last year's volumes, reports The Business Standard.
Output from Uttar Pradesh (UP) – one of India's largest states and a key mango-producing region – is forecast to be somewhere between 20 and 30 per cent down on last season, when the state produced a bumper 300,000-tonne crop.
Horticulture experts saidthe predicted drop in volumes was due to alternate bearing, whereby trees have an irregular crop load from year to year.
A regular crop year is always followed by a 'shy year', one senior scientist at the Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture told theBusiness Standard. He estimatedthe UP 2011 crop would be 25-30 per cent down on last year.
'Although mango flowering has not yet started, the production will definitely be less than last year,' he said.
Meanwhile, All India Mango Growers Association president Insram Ali predicted a 20-25 per cent drop in UP production this year.
Mr Ali told the Business Standard that a clearer picture would emerge once flowering begins.
Delhi is the largest market for Uttar Pradesh mangoes, followed by Punjab, the report said.
Indian mangoes are exported to Asia, Europe and the US.
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