Australia, US new markets for Karnataka mangoes

Mangaluru: After West Asia and Europe, Australia and USA have been emerging as the new market for mangoes grown in the state, Karnataka Mango Development and Marketing Corporation managing director Kadire Gowda said on Saturday.

Interacting with reporters at the venue of the mango-jackfruit festival which began here, Gowda said importers in Australia had sought 200 tonnes of mangoes from the state for the first time this year, while the demand for Karnataka mangoes had risen from 100 tonnes last year to 200 tonnes now.

He said the Corporation would export 200 to 300 tonnes of mangoes this year to the US which was turning out to be a good market with potential.

Three schemes had been introduced by the Corporation to promote mango marketing, he said.

Online trading, marketing mangoes on wheels in residential areas in Bengaluru and mango picking tourism were the schemes conceived, he added.

"Mango picking tourism" was a scheme in which consumers would be taken to mango orchards in Bengaluru in a KSRTC bus for picking ripened mangoes of their choice and paying the farmers on the spot.

The consumers would have to bear half the cost of transportation, he said.