INDIA—BACKGROUND

The lack of mango market development globally opens a large untapped opportunity for India to make an organized entry in the fresh mango and mango pulp market. India is well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity with a very large national production of mangos, including leading varieties like Alphonso. India has the potential to create a long–term global market position and to capitalize on the fast growth of mango as a preferred ingredient for the natural package food industry. Additionally, mango is a preferred fresh fruit within the Indian domestic market, as well as globally. Mango is in strong demand within the worldwide retail sector. The total market value of Indian mango and mango pulp represents 25% of the value of agricultural and processed food products exported by India (Tamil Nadu State Agriculture Marketing and Agri Business Board AEZ–Mango, 2003). Moreover, the consumption growth for mangos in the United States and Europe has average 10–15% per year during the last 5 years. Collectively, these factors indicate a strong opportunity to position Indian mango and mango products to meet a growing international demand.

India is the world's largest supplier of mangos, having an annual production of 10.5 million metric tons in 2003 (FAO). This accounts for 41% of the estimated worldwide mango production of 25.56 million metric tons in 2003. Despite this large mango production, India is a minor exporter of mango and mango products at this time. During the five–year period from 1998–2002, exports of fresh mangos from India averaged approximately 42.4 thousand metric tons, or only about 0.4% of mango production during this time frame. Data on exports of Indian mango pulp and juice products are more limited. Data from 1995 (the last year for which FAO reports these data) indicated that India exported 37.7 thousand metric tons of mango pulp. Data from 2001 indicated that India exported 3.2 thousand metric tons of mango juice, but also imported 2.2 thousand metric tons of mango juice. Collectively, these observations indicate that, despite being by far the world's largest mango producer, India exports less than 1% of its mango crop as fresh mangos or processed mango products. These observations with mango are consistent with aggregate data available on Indian fruit and vegetable exports.

One barrier to efficient development of the Indian mango industry is an exceedingly complex supply chain. Within the value chain, a number of buyers and other aggregators operate at local Mandis and APMCs to assemble larger lots from the many small producers in any given region. Associated with this inefficient aggregation process is the application of numerous commissions as fresh agricultural products trade hands. Numerous stakeholders in India have expressed concern that this overly complex value chain is a hindrance to effective marketing of Indian mangos and mango products. A recent report from the Indian Ministry of Food Processing Industries further details the overly complex supply chain and its contribution to costs and post–harvest losses. This report concludes that it is imperative to streamline the mango supply chain in order to reduce wastage and raw material costs. (Sources: India Ministry of Food Processing Industries and Rabobank Report).