Who hasn’t grown up in Andhra Pradesh and not gorged on juicy sweet Banganapalle mangoes all summer long? Childhood memories of everyone here are filled with mothers cutting up these mangoes and keeping them in the refrigerator to be chilled, maybe even with a generous helping of sugar on top – to sweeten them further. Now, the Banganpalle mango has gotten a Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
OP Gupta, the Registrar of Geographical Indications Registry, Chennai, has accorded this registration. The GI tag was accorded following an application put in by the Horticulture Commissioner of Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh government is the registered proprietor of these mangoes that are often hailed as the ‘king of fruits’. What this GI tag does is indicate that the fruit has come in from a particular region, and Banganapalle mangoes have been grown for over 100 years in AP.
Also known as Beneshan, Baneshan, Benishan, Chappatai and Safeda and called Banaganapalli, Banginapalli, Banaganapalle; these mangoes retain their quality when placed in cold storage for upto three months. The same was mentioned in the documents put in by the AP government while seeking the GI. Describing the characteristics of the fruit, they further stated that few of the prominent characteristics of Banganapalle are their skin with very light spots, an oblong stone and thin seed with soft fibre all over.
While the fruit primarily originates from Kurnool district comprising of Banaganapalle, Paanyam and Nandyal mandals, the secondary centres of origin are Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra in AP and Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy, Medak and Adilabad districts in Telangana. While submitting documents about the proof of origin, the state government submitted historical records of a ‘war fund seal’.
A logo has been finalised too featuring the bright yellow mango with ‘Banganappalle Mangoes of Andhra Pradesh’ as their tagline. The logo also features a man and woman farmer. An affidavit was furnished in 2011 by the then Andhra Pradesh Commissioner of Horticulture that nearly 7.68 lakh families were producing Banganapalle mangoes in the state.
5,500 tonnes of these mangoes are exported to US and UK every year. The affidavit even stated that the annual turnover of these mangoes stood at Rs 1,461 crore and exports stood at Rs 20.68 crore. As one can see, the different between both the turnovers is massive. So while the GI is covered under Intellectual Property Rights and trade related aspects of the same, the tag will certify the origin of the product and produce from the region, attributing it to be unique of its place of origin. The GI tag will now help farmers and manufacturers get a better market price on these mangoes.
