(From top) Mango traders in Berhampur are doing brisk business. Pictures by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, May 12: Summer has arrived and so have mangoes. Neelakantheswar new mango market, situated near Neelakantheswar Temple here, is doing business of more around Rs 25lakh a day.

But the bad news for consumers is that the price of these mangoes has shot up by 40 per cent as compared to last year at this market that is counted as one of the largest mango markets in the state.

The Berhampur mango market has been situated near the Neelakantheswar temple since 1995. Earlier, it was near the St. Stephens Church Ground for 17 years and prior to that, at Khwaja Sahi here.

“The mango market is a seasonal one and runs for just four months every year — April to July. There are 76 stalls set up by nearly 40 wholesalers with 75 per cent commission agents.

“Now the market receives different varieties of mango from Andhra Pradesh worth between Rs 20 and 25lakh per day,” said Prakash Chandra Gouda, secretary of Neelakantheswar new mango market. Gouda has been in the mango business for four decades. His father, Raghunath Gouda was also a mango merchant.

The market mainly depends on Andhra Pradesh for its stock that comes from the areas such as Srikakulam, Vijayanagaram, Elluru, Nellore, Narsanapeta, Vijayawada and other places.

About 10 per cent of these mangoes also come from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Varieties such as, Sundari, Baiganapalli, Cherukurasam or Akhurasa, Panukul and some others are in great demand here. While a kilogram of Baiganapalli mangoes costs Rs 15 in wholesale rate, Sundari is priced between Rs 18 and Rs 20, Totapurim Rs 9 and Rs 10 while the Panukul variety costs around Rs 20.

Pickles are prepared from Totapalli, Kalamgoda and some other varieties while local varieties are used to make dry-mango popularly known as Ambula and mango juice. On the other hand, the Berhampur market supplied mangoes to various places within the state and neighbouring states such as Bengal, Gouda said.

Each truck carried between three and 16 tonne of mangoes, depending on their loading capacity.

“As mangoes are perishable, about 75 per cent of the businessmen prefer to be commission agents of Andhra wholesalers and about 25 per cent businessmen purchase it directly from Andhra,” he added.

However, due to inconsistent weather conditions in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa in the last two months, production has plummeted by more than 50 per cent, he said. This had contributed to sharp hike in the price of the king of fruits.

“Continuous fog for two days followed by rain in Andhra Pradesh and Orissa caused massive damage to the mango crop in both the states and we are facing a scarcity in supply,” Gouda said.