Does the future of Hapus lie in fruit wine?
But Noshirwan Mistry, who has a large mango orchard in Dapoli in Ratnagiri district, tells me of a less happy reason to make fruit wine. Ratnagiri is ground zero for Alphonsos, the mangoes most prized in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Because of their good travelling properties and early proximity to shipping networks from Mumbai, Alphonsos have also become the Indian mango variety best known abroad.
Every year there are stories of freakishly early February arrivals going for insane prices — as much as ₹10,000 a box this year. As summer progresses prices come down, but rarely below ₹800-1,000 a dozen. Alphonsos, or Hapus, as they are known locally, are possibly the highest priced horticultural product grown on a wide scale in India.
They have long underwritten prosperity in the North Konkan.
Mistry's mangoes are among the best. He farms organically, refusing to put the chemicals that other farmers now use routinely.
He also leaves mangoes to ripen on the tree much longer, a crucial step in their developing real complexity of taste and aroma. He avoids selling through intermediaries, often delivering the mangoes himself to customers willing to pay a premium for this quality.
Yet, Mistry now tells me he is experimenting with making part of his crop into a fruit wine, in the hope that this value addition might help farmers like him survive.
The coastal belt is witnessing a land rush, with developers snapping up land to build resorts or villas for urbanites looking for holiday homes. «I know other farmers in the same village who have already sold out and stopped growing mangoes,» he says.
This is happening across India in areas where agricultural produce will never bring returns comparable to non-agricultural development.
