It is said that every summer writes a new story and there’s one character who is always a constant in mine. The mango, the undisputed ruler the Summer. While the entire nation waits for their favourite fruit to hit the shelves with the same anticipation as Katrina Kaif in Slice advertisements, there’s one town in Kerala that has the privilege to be showered with Mango goodness before all others.
About 27 kilometers from Pallakad, Muthalamada is covered with 4,500 hectares of Mango Orchards, exporting about Rs 200 crore worth of varieties like Alphonso, Neelam, Mallika, Malgova and many others, including the eponymous Muthalamada mangoes that are known for their juiciness, fragrance, and flavor. It also grows local varieties like chandrakaaran, priyor and Moovandhan – a pest-resistant mango used for the first batch of pickle in the south.
With the harvest ready early in February, Muthalamada is the largest center of mango production with other competitors being Peru and Venezuela. Known for their elaborate winter weddings, North India is the biggest buyer of mangoes from Muthalamada. While many mangoes are organically cultivated with a higher price tag, the orchards have been alleged to use heavy pesticides on their crop, yet numerous trucks carry fresh produce to wholesale markets every single day, with a strict quality control check these mangoes are even exported to countries like Europe and Gulf.
Before gaining recognition for mango farming, Muthalamada was growing paddy. But according to the Parambikulam-Aliyar project signed between Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Kerala often faces the shortage of water which makes the paddy farming slightly complicated and this led to the mango farming. Apart from generating the first mangoes in the nation, Muthalamada is also a seasonal home to pluckers, sorters and packers from all over India who then move on to Tamil Nadu, Vijayawada, Guntur, Warangal in Andhra Pradesh and finally to Uttar Pradesh where the mango season finally ends, beginning yet another period of wait for the mango lovers.
Representational feature image courtesy Travel Wire Asia
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