PANAJI
The success of the first exports of Goa's famed 'malcorado' mango, also called 'mankurad' to the United Kingdom recently has opened a window of hope among farmers in the State.
The 'malcorado mango' had earned a GI tag in August last year.
"A consignment of three quintals (300 kgs) of the much sought after native Goan variety of mango was shipped from the Manohar International Airport and the entire project was coordinated by the Agriculture Products Export Development Agency (APEDA) for the exporters, Kay Bee Exports," an official of the Agriculture Department said.
The official also said that the experiment to export the malcorado was kick started with the interest shown by the Maharashtra-based Kay Bee Exports whose officials got in touch with the Goa Agriculture Department and then, one thing led to another.
APEDA officials then enquired with a number of cultivators and then zeroed in on the horticulture farms in the Sattari region. The mangoes for export were eventually sourced from the farm belonging to Dr Francis Pinto located in the Naneli area of Valpoi and managed by Rakesh Singh.
The founder and CEO of Kay Bee exports, Prakash Kakkar, himself visited Goa to ensure that the malcorado mango export experiment succeeds, said an official of the Agriculture Department.
The success of the project, according to him, bodes well for Goa's famed malcorado mango which is known to have a very short shelf-life, much lower than neighbouring Ratnagiri's 'Alphonso' made famous by exports to western countries.
