Gujarat's alphonso mangoes to shine on Walmart shelves

SURAT: The famous Valsadi hafoos ( alphonsos) and kesars will soon fill the shelves of the world’s largest retailer , Walmart. Valsad, popular for its alphonso and kesar mangoes, especially in the US, has become a favoured destination for Wal-Mart to directly source organic mangoes from orchards.

Walmart, through its Indian joint venture Bharti Walmart Private Limited, has decided to foray into the region on a big scale to provide export market access to the mango farmers of Valsad.

A spokesperson of Bharti-Walmart confirmed the move. “We are looking at engaging mango farmers of Valsad for direct sourcing of alphonso and kesar from the region. A meeting in this connection was organized with the horticulture department and the farmers,” the spokesperson told TOI.

Horticulture department officials said Bharti Walmart representatives visited Valsad a few days ago to meet farmers cultivating these mangoes organically. C D Chaudhary, deputy director of horticulture (Valsad district), told TOI, “The company wants to directly source organic mangoes from Valsad. This is for the first time that the mango farmers of Valsad have been directly approached by the giant retailer.”

Chaudhary said a primary survey carried out by the department recently suggested there are 100 organic mango orchards cultivating alphonso and kesar at Valsad, Pardi, Umbergaon, Dharampur and Kaprada. A total of 1,400 metric tonnes of these two varieties are cultivated in a season.

“The mangoes sourced directly from the farmers here will be put up for sale in its Easyday stores in India and Walmart stores across the world,” said Chaudhary.