A couple in Madhya Pradesh is now making news as they are growing the fruit in their orchard in Jabalpur.
Despite the speculation about the exorbitant price of the mango, experts are divided on whether the fruit grown in India will meet the exacting standards of the international market.
My reservation in the second AC, which was not confirmed, got bumped up to first-class where I met a person who was selling these saplings,” Parihar told the indianexpress.com.
This is when Parihar decided to give the plants a try and bought around 100 plants for around 2.5 lakhs.
Once planted, it took over two to three years for the trees to bear fruits.
Parihar, however, has no plans of selling the fruit even though he was offered Rs 21,000 for a single mango.
Different from the yellow “pelican mango” that is widely grown in Southeast Asia, the Miyazaki mangoes have the second largest production in Japan after Okinawa.
In 2019, a pair of premium mangoes from Miyazaki Prefecture fetched a record ¥500,000 at a local wholesale market breaking the previous best of ¥400,000, The Japan Times reported.
Madhya Pradesh agricultural department joint director Shri KS Netam, who visited the Parihars’ orchard, feels that though the fruit has high demand and fetches a good price in the international market, that may not be the case in the Indian market.
To get the perfect colour of the fruit, Japanese farmers surround the mangoes with small nets that allow sunlight to evenly hit the skin to get the ruby red colour as well as cushion them when it falls from the tree.
He , at present, does not have many fruits to sell, which is why a market rate cannot be established.
I feel the fruit may not even fetch more than 5-10,000 in India until and unless beneficial components are found in it,” he added.
DR KK Saxena, former dean of Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur suggests that until proper research is done on the mangoes, there is no way to confirm that they are the Miyazaki.