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Once again, this year’s mango season will be challenging for producers for a variety of reasons, including current marketing prospects, unending orchard diseases, the closure of the Afghanistan border and highly unstable conditions in the Middle East and Iran amidst the US-Israel and Iran war. This region remains a prospective market for Pakistani mangoes’ trade every season.
While the picking of some mango varieties, including Sindhri and Saroli, has begun in lower Sindh’s Mirpurkhas district, the full-fledged harvesting season is expected to take off by late May.
Unfortunately, malformation, hopper and thrips continue to affect mangoes. The pace of disease has increased over the last few years, taking a heavy economic toll on mango producers. Orchard owners, as well as contractors, have endeavoured to control them as best as possible to ensure that production is not affected at all.
The impact of the disease is generally more severe in lower Sindh districts such as Tando Allahyar. Reports from these areas also suggest that several orchard contractors have walked away from their agreements with orchard owners midway through the season.
