Alphonso growers in Konkan region of Maharashtra, worried about other mango varieties being sold as Alphonso, can heave a sigh of relief. Consumers, too, can be assured that they have picked the original king of mangoes.

Innoterra Tech, an Innoterra business unit, is collaborating with the Geographical Indication (GI) Authority in India, Maharashtra Government and Indian mango farmers collective, to tag each Alphonso mango with FarmTrace.

GI tag

Consumers can scan the QR code to know the GI status and source of the Alphonso mango, right up to the farm level. This makes it easier for them to pick the original Alphonso, the most premium variant of mango available globally.

The tag will cover around one lakh tonnes of mangoes (4,000 crore mangoes), grown over 5,000 acres of land in Konkan by 2022, directly benefiting more than 1,000 farmers.

Vivek Bhide, Chairperson of Konkan Alphonso Mango Producers and Sellers Cooperative Asociation, in a press statement issued by Innoterra Tech said: “Recently, many national and international variants of mangoes, such as ones from Malawi in Africa, are being sold in the market as Alphonso mangoes. As Alphonso mangoes are GI-tagged, this is an incorrect practice. Establishing traceability for original Alphonso mangoes will not only help consumers to get value for their money but also curb product falsification and mislabelling. The true beneficiaries will be the farmers, who will immediately see 10%+ improvement in their income.”

The Alphonso produced largely in the Konkan was granted a GI tag in 2020 for its unique origin. The challenge, however, has been to ensure that the original fruits from Konkan get to retain the GI tag and that the authorities are able to curb false claims by fruit producers through complete traceability of the fruit to the origin.

Alphonso has won worldwide acclaim for being the richest in taste and most fragrant and vibrant mango variant, fetching the highest premium of all mango variants. Over 15,000 tonnes of the premium fruit are exported every year from India, mainly to West Asia, the UK, China and Europe.

Breakthrough

Suniti Gupta, MD and CEO of Innoterra Tech, said, “Our solution is based on technology architecture that links data already logged by food producers and suppliers, tracks each piece of fruit based on a unique sticker. Scanning the sticker QR code will let the consumers know the location of the farm, the batch number, processing unit, packaging unit, shipping information as well as a complete timeline of these steps. Thus, the complete journey of fruit from the farm to the retail shelf is made available to the consumers. This is especially relevant for all GI-tagged products, as authenticity and source of origin are very important in ensuring the right value for producers.”

Sandesh Maruti Patil, representative of Alphonso Mango Farmers Collective in Maharashtra, said, “Traceability of Alphonso mangoes is a major breakthrough for the farmers – this way, all our efforts to deliver the highest quality Alphonso mangoes to the global consumers are recognised. Once the farmers register under the GI initiative, which can be done easily at the official portal, they can get all their products tagged immediately”.

Related Topics