Export of Rajshahi mangoes to Italy begins

The export of mangoes from Rajshahi to Italy began today. 

Packaging works were already completed for sending the first consignment of mango to Italy from Bagha upazila of the district of the current season. On Wednesday (3 May) evening, the mangoes were sent to Dhaka and those are expected to be sent to Italy Thursday (4 May).

Confirming the issue Upazila Agriculture Officer Shafiullah Sultan said mangoes are being exported to Italy this time in the initial stage of the current season of the delicious fruit.

He said 300 kilogrammes of mangoes, which are local varieties, are to be exported through Adab International, an exporting entity in Dhaka, in the preliminary stage.

Shafiqul Islam, the owner of Sadia Enterprise, a mango growing organisation, said the advanced variety mangoes are very much tasty and its demand is comparatively higher than many other varieties in local markets.

"We are trying to export it to make the variety popular in foreign markets," he said, adding the mangoes were sold at Tk100 per kilogramme for export.

Meanwhile, the juicy and delicious mangoes have started appearing in the markets of Rajshahi city and its adjacent areas as its harvesting began today morning, abiding by the instruction of the local administration.

Like the previous years, some of the indigenous varieties have appeared in the markets as farmers and traders have started harvesting mangoes since the morning following the instruction.

Mozder Hossain, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), told BSS that most of the mangoes will mature and ripen within the stipulated time and then those could be harvested normally.

He said some of the indigenous varieties of mangoes have already ripened. But the other delicious and famous varieties- -Gopalbhog, Khirshapat and Langra- need some more days to be ripened.

According to the administrative decision, the farmers can pluck local varieties from today, while Gopalbhog from 15 May, Ranipachhand 20 May, and Himsagar or Khirshapat from 25 May.

They can also harvest Langra from 6 June, Amrapali and Fazly from 10 June, Ashwina and BARI Aam-4 from 10 July, Gormati from 10 July and Ilamati from 20 August.

Mozder Hossain said there are mango orchards on 19,578 hectares of land with 63,986 trees in the district and the target has been fixed to produce around 2.58 lakh tonnes of mango worth around Tk1,500 crore this year.