Despite the difficult weather conditions, the mango harvest is good. However, Mumbai's favorite variety is still too expensive for many locals.
Mango season has started in India Photo: Zoonar/imago
Currently they are reappearing on corners, hidden between houses and businesses: mango stands. Where shirts and trousers were sold a few days ago in Mumbai's Bandra district, there are now colorful cardboard boxes lined with hay that smell like what is written on them: “Export quality mangoes.” Inside there are 12 fruits the size of a fist. They are yellow to red on the outside and the flesh is saffron orange. They are the first mangoes of the season and they are the most expensive variety in India: the Alphonso.
The mango has been rooted in Indian mythology, culture and history for a long time. Jesuits from Europe brought finishing techniques to the West Indies and the Afonso, as it was called then, was created in memory of the Portuguese general and colonialist Alfonso de Albuquerque. It is also known by the Indian name Hapus. Its reputation extends far beyond the West Indies. The shape, size and flavor determine the price each year.
And: how good the harvest. This year could be a good year for mango producers. Favorable weather conditions have resulted in high Alphonso yields for many. This year they should be even more affordable. The price of good boxes in Bombay starts at the equivalent of about eleven euros and can go up to 33 euros.
In western India the season lasts until approximately June or until the beginning of the rainy season. Deliveries from the coastal region of Konkan and Karnataka started early, but business remains slow. “Customers are hesitant,” says Akshata Pankar. His family has an organic mango plantation in Maharashtra. “Prices are currently as constant as in 2023,” he says. But early rain, such as in December, and intense heat in early summer could pose serious problems. But now it's the mango wedding.
A box of some types of mango costs a day's wages.
Jokhan, who works as a driver in Mumbai, prefers to wait for the sweet fruits to arrive: “At the moment they are too expensive,” he says. The box would cost more than a day's wages. “I'll be patient for another month or two.” Jokhan prefers to eat Alphonso, which is grown 300 to 400 kilometers away in the mango regions of Ratnagiri and Devgad. “Langra and dasheri taste good too,” he says. The last two come from his homeland, the state of Uttar Pradesh, in the north of the country. Unlike the “Queen of Fruits”, the Alphonso, these varieties are larger and greener on the outside. In Mumbai they arrive later at wholesale markets and street vendors.
If you take a walk through the old neighborhoods of Mumbai, you will discover long-leafed mango trees that currently bear small fruits. The trees are not far from the beaches where mangoes are offered on wooden carts. Green fruits are less suitable for lassis because they cannot reach the queen. But if harvested green, they are acidic and are best pickled or rubbed raw with rice. “We used to pick mangoes directly from the wholesale market,” says Jokhan. They are picked before they are fully ripe and then ripened in the boxes. If it does not have to be of ecological quality, artificial help is used.
Suvarna Satpute, 40, joins Jokhan. She doesn't invest her hard-earned money on her favorite mango. “We have neighbors who come from the Konkan region and every summer they bring us fruits of their vacations. There are also some Alphonso mangoes among them,” she states. She buys other varieties like Kesar or Badami, which are cheaper. But Alphonso's taste is special: “Everyone in the family likes them.”
Which is the best variety of mango in India can end up in a very long discussion. In Mumbai, however, most people agree: the answer is Alphonso.