Continuous summer showers for the past couple of weeks in several parts of Kerala have salvaged mangosteen, nutmeg and cocoa crops which have flowered late this year. In other places, the severe dry spell has inflicted heavy damage to the crop that flowered earlier.

Growers in Konni and Thiruvalla region in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district said most of the immature fruits fell down due to the dry spell. A similar situation has been experienced in other areas also, Joshua Daniel and Radhakrishnan, mangosteen growers told Business Line .

They said due to this, an overall drop is expected in the current crop, which is due for harvesting in June.

However, harvesting has started in some areas in Thrissur district, they said.

“We have a normal crop this year”, Thomas P Thomas, a Botanist and grower in Kozhencherry in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district said.

“We have 15 fruit bearing trees and traders offer good price for the fruits per tree. We have given them all for ₹1.25 lakhs,” he said.

The intermediaries sell the matured fruits at ₹350-500 a kg to vendors in the markets, who in turn sell them at ₹450-550 a kg, market sources said. They said the growers do not know the total volume of the crop per tree and the market trend.

A dealer here said a super market in the city was selling mangosteen imported from Indonesia at ₹550 a kg.

Thomas said mangosteen and nutmeg require soil moisture. But drought and a drop in the ground water table are posing problems. Nutmeg has surface roots and hence, the dry spell will affect its trees fast.

Cocoa has also started flowering and bearing fruits in some areas. Many of these fruits and flowers won’t be able to withstand the heat and will fall, he said. Production of all these crops in 2014 is likely to halve, growers said.

Dried cocoa beans are fetching ₹200 and above a kg, currently, a grower claimed.

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