Considered the king of mangoes, Alphonso is highly sought after by mango lovers across the world for its distinct succulent flavour, aroma, and creamy and tender texture. For its cultivators in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, the GI-tagged fruit is one of the most prized possessions.
This year, the fruit brought more sweet tidings for its farmers in Ratnagiri as 300 small farmers took a bold step of taking Alphonsos to the global stage.
“Mango export is a highly untapped market in Maharashtra. We, local farmers, underestimated our capabilities initially, worrying about the possible chaos of export business. We knew the real worth of our authentic produce but feared getting into any kind of trap,” says Tejas Kawathekar, director of farmer producer company, Konkan Ratnagiri Boomi Agro Producer Limited.
In a bid to tap the global market, the farmer producer company decided to get into the forward value chain and export the produce directly from India.
Aamore exported its mangoes to London, Canada, the United States, and Kuwait.
For this, 300 small landholding farmers from Jagar – who were dependent on middlemen for generations – came together and launched a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand Aamoré (Italian word for love), to make people abroad fall in love with authentic .
Owned by smallholder farmers, the brand exported 10 tonnes of its produce to London, Canada, the United States, and Kuwait by air. More exports meant more profits and happier farmers.
Tejas grew up relishing Alphonsos, locally called Hapus, on his two-acre farm. While savouring the sweet fruit, he also saw what went behind cultivating this popular fruit variety.
“I had seen my father toiling in the field. The process of is cumbersome. In our region, the soil is mainly lateritic and rocky, and mangoes are grown under rain-fed conditions. My father would first break the rocky soil and make the field favourable for mango plantation,” he shares.
“Once the fruiting started, he would be out all day in summer heat protecting them from monkey attacks. If you are out of sight for even a few minutes, monkeys pluck the fruits and destroy the plantation. Farmers need to be very careful,” says Tejas.
As many as 300 small farmers took a bold step of taking Alphonsos to the global stage.
After months of backbreaking work, farmers like Tejas’s father would hardly earn any decent incomes for their produce. “Farmers usually sold their mangoes in Pune and APMC mandi in Vashi – the largest agricultural market in Mumbai, where they are forced to sell produce via middlemen. This is how the industry works,” he adds.
“There is a lot of scope of exploitation in this industry. Middlemen would sell our produce for Rs 800-900 per dozen but the growers would get only Rs 200. We were being cheated and this has been in place for generations!” says Tejas.
The 28-year-old wanted to find a solution that put an end to this age-old agony. “Once, while watching the news, I came to know that Maharashtra only exports five percent of its Alphonsos whereas the rest of the bulk produce is consumed in the state itself. After studying, we found out that we could earn handsomely if we entered the export market,” he adds.
After consulting with a bunch of farmers, Tejas went on to form Konkan Ratnagiri Boomi Agro Producer Limited, which was formally launched in December 2023.
Entering the export business was a bold step for small farmers. “Initially, it was difficult to understand flight bookings, transportation, various kinds of food licences, and MRL (maximum residue level) tests for crops. As local farmers, we lacked that much knowledge and awareness. Many farmers feared and doubted their capabilities,” says Tejas.
The farmers were able to earn up to Rs 1,200 per dozen for their produce.
This is when the farmers sought help from a Bengaluru-based consultation company ‘Krushal’ that helps farmers with a wide range of value chain services.
Aakash Kashyap, who works as a consultant with the company, tells The Better India, “It is not easy to export Alphonso mangoes as it is a and requires a lot of care to transport. Its shelf life is also extremely short, hardly seven days. As mangoes are perishable, we could not export via sea but only via plane. In the 2024 season, air freight was prohibitively expensive and notoriously unreliable because of the spillover effects of the Red Sea shipping crisis. So the challenges of exporting got multiplied many-fold.”
“Besides, one needs a lot of paperwork to be done to export fruits out of the country. While private companies have export experience and, therefore, the ability to manage these complex processes, it was the first time that these small farmers attempted exporting on their own. Exporting was an alien concept for them as they didn’t know who to sell, the payment mechanism, rules and regulations of exports,” he adds.
With Krushal’s assistance in securing customer orders, finding airline slots, processing fruit meeting the stringent quality requirements of the export, export processing and documentation, and custom clearance management, farmers have been able to make five to six shipments and exported about 10 tonnes of produce to the United Kingdom, the United States, Kuwait, and other countries.
They also launched their website aamore.co.in for online orders.
“The result of this effort has been very encouraging, in terms of the level of customer delight and the demand for more shipments from trade partners and consumers alike. The FPC expects to expand its export activities multi-fold in the next year based on the experience gained and the brand traction achieved,” says Aakash.
“This was the first time we sold outside Maharashtra and India,” says Tejas with joy.
Without any middleman, the entire money was transferred directly to their bank accounts. “Had it been any private company, the sales would have been distributed in multiple ways,” says Aakash.
Collectively, the farmers were able to earn up to Rs 1,200 per dozen for their produce. “Each of us earned at least six times by entering into the export business [from Rs 200 to Rs 1,200]. It was a one-of-a-kind experience for all of us. We also sold 35 tonnes of our produce at Rs 900 per dozen domestically in Delhi, Lucknow, Gurgaon, Bangalore, and Punjab markets,” says Tejas.
This year, the farmers tapped into an international customer base and aim to sell 100 tonnes of their produce domestically and internationally next season. “Initially, it was difficult to convince these farmers. But being from the community, I was able to gain their trust, and today, we are happy to have taken this decision. We got timely payments. The onboarding for next season has already started. Seeing our success, more and more farmers are joining us,” he smiles.
Edited by Pranita Bhat. All photos: Tejas Kawathekar.
This year, the fruit brought more sweet tidings for its farmers in Ratnagiri as 300 small farmers took a bold step of taking Alphonsos to the global stage.
“Mango export is a highly untapped market in Maharashtra. We, local farmers, underestimated our capabilities initially, worrying about the possible chaos of export business. We knew the real worth of our authentic produce but feared getting into any kind of trap,” says Tejas Kawathekar, director of farmer producer company, Konkan Ratnagiri Boomi Agro Producer Limited.
In a bid to tap the global market, the farmer producer company decided to get into the forward value chain and export the produce directly from India.
Aamore exported its mangoes to London, Canada, the United States, and Kuwait.
For this, 300 small landholding farmers from Jagar – who were dependent on middlemen for generations – came together and launched a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand Aamoré (Italian word for love), to make people abroad fall in love with authentic .
Owned by smallholder farmers, the brand exported 10 tonnes of its produce to London, Canada, the United States, and Kuwait by air. More exports meant more profits and happier farmers.
A bitter tale behind the sweet tidings
Tejas grew up relishing Alphonsos, locally called Hapus, on his two-acre farm. While savouring the sweet fruit, he also saw what went behind cultivating this popular fruit variety.
“I had seen my father toiling in the field. The process of is cumbersome. In our region, the soil is mainly lateritic and rocky, and mangoes are grown under rain-fed conditions. My father would first break the rocky soil and make the field favourable for mango plantation,” he shares.
“Once the fruiting started, he would be out all day in summer heat protecting them from monkey attacks. If you are out of sight for even a few minutes, monkeys pluck the fruits and destroy the plantation. Farmers need to be very careful,” says Tejas.
As many as 300 small farmers took a bold step of taking Alphonsos to the global stage.
After months of backbreaking work, farmers like Tejas’s father would hardly earn any decent incomes for their produce. “Farmers usually sold their mangoes in Pune and APMC mandi in Vashi – the largest agricultural market in Mumbai, where they are forced to sell produce via middlemen. This is how the industry works,” he adds.
“There is a lot of scope of exploitation in this industry. Middlemen would sell our produce for Rs 800-900 per dozen but the growers would get only Rs 200. We were being cheated and this has been in place for generations!” says Tejas.
The 28-year-old wanted to find a solution that put an end to this age-old agony. “Once, while watching the news, I came to know that Maharashtra only exports five percent of its Alphonsos whereas the rest of the bulk produce is consumed in the state itself. After studying, we found out that we could earn handsomely if we entered the export market,” he adds.
After consulting with a bunch of farmers, Tejas went on to form Konkan Ratnagiri Boomi Agro Producer Limited, which was formally launched in December 2023.
When small farmers unite against big players
Entering the export business was a bold step for small farmers. “Initially, it was difficult to understand flight bookings, transportation, various kinds of food licences, and MRL (maximum residue level) tests for crops. As local farmers, we lacked that much knowledge and awareness. Many farmers feared and doubted their capabilities,” says Tejas.
The farmers were able to earn up to Rs 1,200 per dozen for their produce.
This is when the farmers sought help from a Bengaluru-based consultation company ‘Krushal’ that helps farmers with a wide range of value chain services.
Aakash Kashyap, who works as a consultant with the company, tells The Better India, “It is not easy to export Alphonso mangoes as it is a and requires a lot of care to transport. Its shelf life is also extremely short, hardly seven days. As mangoes are perishable, we could not export via sea but only via plane. In the 2024 season, air freight was prohibitively expensive and notoriously unreliable because of the spillover effects of the Red Sea shipping crisis. So the challenges of exporting got multiplied many-fold.”
“Besides, one needs a lot of paperwork to be done to export fruits out of the country. While private companies have export experience and, therefore, the ability to manage these complex processes, it was the first time that these small farmers attempted exporting on their own. Exporting was an alien concept for them as they didn’t know who to sell, the payment mechanism, rules and regulations of exports,” he adds.
With Krushal’s assistance in securing customer orders, finding airline slots, processing fruit meeting the stringent quality requirements of the export, export processing and documentation, and custom clearance management, farmers have been able to make five to six shipments and exported about 10 tonnes of produce to the United Kingdom, the United States, Kuwait, and other countries.
They also launched their website aamore.co.in for online orders.
“The result of this effort has been very encouraging, in terms of the level of customer delight and the demand for more shipments from trade partners and consumers alike. The FPC expects to expand its export activities multi-fold in the next year based on the experience gained and the brand traction achieved,” says Aakash.
“This was the first time we sold outside Maharashtra and India,” says Tejas with joy.
Without any middleman, the entire money was transferred directly to their bank accounts. “Had it been any private company, the sales would have been distributed in multiple ways,” says Aakash.
Collectively, the farmers were able to earn up to Rs 1,200 per dozen for their produce. “Each of us earned at least six times by entering into the export business [from Rs 200 to Rs 1,200]. It was a one-of-a-kind experience for all of us. We also sold 35 tonnes of our produce at Rs 900 per dozen domestically in Delhi, Lucknow, Gurgaon, Bangalore, and Punjab markets,” says Tejas.
This year, the farmers tapped into an international customer base and aim to sell 100 tonnes of their produce domestically and internationally next season. “Initially, it was difficult to convince these farmers. But being from the community, I was able to gain their trust, and today, we are happy to have taken this decision. We got timely payments. The onboarding for next season has already started. Seeing our success, more and more farmers are joining us,” he smiles.
Edited by Pranita Bhat. All photos: Tejas Kawathekar.