Instead, severe weather has hurt yields not just in northern India but also in the south, which has been hit by heavy, untimely rain. India’s top export organization had hoped for a big turnaround this year as the Indian and U.S. India has been striving to increase productivity, which would lower costs.Įven before the extreme heat, India’s mango exports had been badly damaged by the supply chain disruptions of the pandemic, with shipments abroad shrinking by almost 50% last year. In the past, export growth has been limited by the higher costs of Indian mangoes compared with those from countries like Brazil, Peru, Israel and Pakistan. Over the past decade, India has been trying to penetrate markets in other European Union countries as well. Much of it is consumed domestically, but the country exports tens of millions of dollars’ worth of mangoes each year to the United Arab Emirates, Britain, Germany and the United States. India is the world’s largest mango producer, accounting for nearly 50% of the global crop.

The heat has far exceeded the optimal temperature for fertilization of mango trees, which is around 77 degrees Fahrenheit, said Dheeraj Kumar Tiwari, a scientist at an agricultural university in Uttar Pradesh. Climate scientists, in a report issued Monday, said the chances of such a heat wave in India had increased by at least 30 times since the 19th century. Aslam is one of hundreds of farmers who have watched helplessly as the intense heat of March continued into the hottest April in 50 years and then carried on into May.

Mangao heat