Centre Steps In to Rescue Andhra's Totapuri Mango Sector With MIS Price Support and ICAR Panel

Two consecutive seasons of favourable weather — 2024 and 2025 — delivered bumper Totapuri mango crops across Andhra Pradesh, but the processing industry was ill-equipped to absorb the surge. Pulp manufacturers were already sitting on unsold stocks from earlier seasons when procurement demand from the Gulf region — the destination for roughly 80% of Chittoor's mango pulp — began weakening from February, a downturn attributed to the ongoing West Asia crisis that has yet to reverse.

The result was a classic supply-demand mismatch: procurement centres were flooded with fruit, and farm-gate prices tumbled sharply. Unlike table fruit varieties such as Banganapalli or Alphonso, Totapuri has virtually no retail market — it is cultivated almost exclusively for industrial pulp extraction. With cold storage infrastructure described as inadequate and the fruit being highly perishable, farmers found themselves with no leverage and were pushed into distress sales.

"The mismatch between supply and demand flooded procurement centres, causing prices to tumble," noted a pulp unit manager with over two dozen seasons of experience in Chittoor.

In response to the crisis, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has approved the Andhra Pradesh government's proposal to implement the Price Deficiency Payment (PDP) under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) for the 2026-27 marketing season.

Key parameters of the approval:

• Market Intervention Price (MIP): ₹1,747 per quintal
• Compensation cap: 25% of the MIP, paid as the price difference to eligible growers
• Coverage: Up to 2.16 lakh metric tonnes, representing 25% of the estimated production of around nine lakh tonnes
• Duration: The scheme will remain operative for one month from the date of the first procurement transaction

Simultaneously, the Centre has constituted a high-level expert panel under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to examine the deeper structural challenges confronting the Totapuri mango industry — including processing capacity, export market dependency, and supply chain vulnerabilities. Together, the two measures represent what the government is positioning as a twin-track response: immediate relief now, structural reform over time.

Andhra Pradesh is India's largest mango-producing state, with cultivation spread across nearly five lakh hectares and annual production of close to 40 lakh tonnes in a normal year. Totapuri, the workhorse of India's mango pulp industry, is prized for its high pulp recovery rate, low fibre content, and suitability for mechanised extraction — making it indispensable to manufacturers of fruit beverages, juices, bakery products, yoghurt, baby food, and confectionery.

The erstwhile Chittoor district — now split across Tirupati, Chittoor, and Annamayya districts — accounts for more than 1.2 lakh hectares under Totapuri cultivation. The district hosts around 47 pulp processing units that collectively procure nearly seven lakh tonnes of Totapuri mangoes and produce approximately four lakh tonnes of pulp each season. Major export markets include West Asia, Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia.

The entire ecosystem — from orchards and factories to transport networks and seasonal trade — supports the livelihoods of more than 30,000 families, underscoring why price collapses in this single variety carry outsized economic consequences for the region.

Across the mango belts, the sentiment among growers is consistent: heavy upfront investment in irrigation, fertilisers, labour, and orchard upkeep makes a price crash catastrophic. Because Totapuri cannot be held back from the market — the fruit is perishable, cold chain options are limited, and it finds no buyer as a table variety — farmers have no fallback when pulp processors cut procurement.

Kothur Babu, President of the Chittoor District Mango Producers Association, captured the structural trap: "We depend almost entirely on pulp factories. We have no alternatives when processors reduce procurement."

For Janardhan Thota, a grower from Irala mandal near Chittoor, the ask is straightforward: "We do not need subsidies. What we need is a fair price that covers our production costs."

This sentiment — productive investment rendered worthless by a single-buyer dependency — is precisely what the ICAR panel will need to address if the Totapuri sector is to build any lasting resilience against demand shocks.

Beyond immediate price support, industry stakeholders have urged the Centre to establish two pieces of critical trade infrastructure in Chittoor district: a Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) office and an Inland Container Depot (ICD).

Kattamanchi Govardhan Bobby, Chairman (South Zone) of the All India Food Processors' Association (AFPA), explained the rationale: a DGFT office would streamline export documentation and speed up regulatory clearances, while an ICD would allow export consignments to be handled locally rather than routed through distant container terminals — directly reducing logistics costs.

The combined infrastructure, if sanctioned, is expected to improve export efficiency, lower transaction costs, and strengthen the competitiveness of Chittoor's pulp exports in global markets. Given that nearly 80% of the district's mango pulp output is already exported, reducing the cost and complexity of that export pathway could meaningfully improve price realisation at the farm level — addressing the root cause of vulnerability rather than just its symptoms.