Earlier this year the forthcoming India mango crop looked to be around 10% to 15% higher than the 2015 season, however recent heavy rains could affect those optimistic predictions.

Parts of the country have been battered by rainfall and some isolated hailstorms over the last few days, including some of the key growing regions in Maharashtra, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Maharashtra is where the majority of export-ready mangos are grown, mainly of the Alphonso variety which is exported to the U.K. and Europe, where large quantities are supplied to ethnic communities who eagerly anticipate the arrival of Indian fruit every year.

"The heavy rainfall and risk of hailstorms ordinarily comes to an end at the end of February, but there has been some unseasonably bad weather over the last few days," a spokesman for the All Indian Mango Growers’ Association tells www.freshfruitportal.com.

"This will no doubt have a slightly negative effect on the mango crops and work is going on right now to assess any damaged caused and to recalculate what we should expect in terms of overall volume this season.

"In February, our predictions were that the mango crop would be up to 15% higher compared against last year, but I think things will change now and the crop quantities could be less by around 10% to 15%."

The last two years have been challenging for India’s 'king of fruits' after a ban was imposed by the European Union in May 2014 following a raft of contaminated consignments.

The embargo, which devastated India’s 2014 export campaign, was lifted earlier than anticipated after extensive lobbying in British and European Parliaments and focused improvements in the Indian sector.

Hope was then restored for the 2015 season but again this was quickly dashed when heavy rains caused crop damage, once again ruining the sector’s export campaign.

Unseasonal rains resulted in production losses of up to 50% in some states.

"This latest bout of bad weather is not as bad as last year and we will have to wait a while before we get a clearer picture on exactly how much production will be affected," the spokesman said.

www.freshfruitportal.com