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Mango (Mangifera indica L.) considered as ‘King
of fruits’, is the most important commercially
grown fruit of India due to its wide range of
adaptability, high nutritive value, richness in variety,
delicious taste and excellent flavour. It
is a rich source of vitamin A and C. The fruit, utilized
raw or ripe, is well-liked by the people and has great
export potential. Raw fruits are used for preparing
various products like raw slices in brine, amchur,
pickle, murabba, chutney, sharbat etc. while ripe fruits
are relished as table fruit and used for processing into
a variety of juice preparations such as squashes, ready
to serve beverages etc. Good mango varieties contain
about 20% total soluble solids in their pulp. The acid
content of ripe desert fruits varies from 0.2 to 0.5%
and protein content is about 1%. Mango has medicinal
uses also. Ripe fruit has fattening, diuretic and
laxative properties. Mango kernel contains about 8 to10%
good quality fat which can be used for saponification
while its starch is used in confectionery industry. The
wood of mango trees is used as timber, and dried twigs
as firewood. Due to its importance, mango is grown
widely in varying agro-climatic conditions ranging from
tropical to sub-tropical and humid to semi-arid.
India ranks first among world’s mango producing
countries with
2.50 million hectares cultivated area and 18.0 million tonnes production
during 2012-13. Mango accounts
for 35.8 and 22.1 per cent
of the country’s fruit acreage and fruit production,
respectively. Other major mango producing countries
include China, Thailand, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines,
Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria and Egypt.
About
55,585 tonnes of fresh mangoes valued at Rs 2647 million
were exported from India during 2012-13 with a share of
5.20 per cent in the global experts to countries
like UAE, Bangladesh, UK, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Nepal,
Bahrain, Oman, USA, Singapore, Switzerland, France and
Japan. About 1,47,816 tonnes of mango pulp valued at Rs
6085.6 million was also exported to countries like Saudi
Arabia, Yemen, The Netherlands, UAE, USA, Sudan, Kuwait,
UK etc.
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