Mrig crop (monsoon blossom), which matures in February – March, has great potential for export since arrivals of mandarin fruit in the international market are less during this period
First consignment of Nagpur oranges was flagged off to Dubai on 13th February 2020 from Vashi, Navi Mumbai. Total 1500 crates were loaded in the refrigerated container from Vanguard Health Care (VHT) facility. Nagpur mandarin in one of the best mandarins in the world. Production of this fruit crop in the central and western part of India is increasing every year. Mrig crop (monsoon blossom), which matures in February – March, has great potential for export since arrivals of mandarin fruit in the international market are less during this period. According to Maharashtra State Agriculture Department, 40 lakh hectare land is under orange cultivation in Nagpur District and major orange growing pockets are Warud, Katol, Saoner, Kalameshwar and Narkhed in Nagpur and Amravati districts. In the whole region only one variety Nagpur Mandarin is grown.
For the implementation of the Agriculture Export Policy, (AEP) Nagpur District is being developed as a cluster for Nagpur Orange by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), an apex body under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The APEDA officer in Mumbai has been nominated as a nodal officer for implementation of AEP and cluster development of Nagpur orange.
The first meeting was held on 30th October 2019 last year under the chairmanship of District Collector, Nagpur. After the meeting, a cluster development committee of stakeholders was constituted consisting of APEDA, National Research Centre for Citrus(NRC), Nagpur, Agri Department of Nagpur District, VANAMATI Nagpur, Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board(MSAMB), Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth(Dr. PDKV), Nagpur MSME, Plant Quarantine Nagpur and MAHA Orange.
Subsequently, a Buyer-Seller Meet cum Training programme on Nagpur Orange cluster was held on 5th December 2019 at VANAMATI, Nagpur. Around 150 farmers from Nagpur District, Farmer Producers companies and seven exporters attended the training programme. Technical sessions and interactions between farmers and exporters was conducted in the training programme. The main focus of the training programme was to increase the exports of Nagpur orange in the Middle East countries and to brand Nagpur orange in the Middle East. It was also explained to all exporters the importance of labelling each fruit and crates of Nagpur orange while exporting.
A field visit was organised on 6th December last year with APEDA, MCDC, State Agriculture Department and exporters to orange growing area at Warud, Katol, Kalameshwar of Nagpur and Amravati districts. After the field visit exporters showed interest for exporting of Nagpur orange. The interested exporters again visited the same orange growing pockets in the month of January this year.
One of the exporters procured oranges directly from the farmers of Warud Taluka and brought them to APEDA funded VHT Facility at Vashi, Navi Mumbai. At VHT pack house the oranges were graded and sorted. New plastic crates were designed and developed by the exporter to carry 10 kgs per crate.
The International Trade in 2018 for orange was USD 10183 million. India produced 8781 thousand tons of orange in 2018-19 (orange includes Mandarin, clementine).
