Live Mango auction creates history with highest bid of Rs.108000 for this season’s first 5 dozen box of authentic Konkan Alphonso mango
MyKo and Global Konkan brought a big smile on the faces of mango farmers from the Konkan region at their first ever and historic public auction for king of fruits “Alphonso Mango or Hapus Mango” held at Courtyard by Marriot recently.
The first ever live public mango auction saw spirited response from the attendees with a close contest between Rajesh Athaide (St Angelo’s VNCT Ventures), Namrata Thakkar Founder of Entrepreneur Excel), Simran, Tanuja Rane (Founder, Tanuja & Associates Interior design firm) and Prasad Malpekar of Sindhudurg Farmer Produce.
The mango auction saw a historic bid of Rs.1,08,000 by Rajesh Athaide for the first box of authentic and GI tagged Alphonso from Konkan. 9 other boxes were also auctioned which fetched top bids ranging from Rs 26,000 to Rs 12000 for the 5 dozen mango box. A total of Rs. 3,10,000 was raised at the auction and Rs. 31,000/- was equally distributed equally amongst the 10 participating farmers.
The objective of the auction was to ensure the mango farmer and cultivators get fair value for the GI tagged authentic Konkan Alphonso mango. Prominent dignitaries like Prakash Darekar (Former Councillor and President – Mumbai Housing Federation), Shekhar Nikam (MLA and President, Sahyadri Shikshan Sanstha, Chiplun), Kishor Dharia, (Director, Global Konkan and President, Hirval Pratishthan), Deepak Parab (Exporter) and many others were present on the occasion. Global mango brand MyKo Food which has been conceptualised by 3 women entrepreneurs Rajashree Yadavrao, Supriya Marathe and Sunayna Raorane was officially launched at the event.
Farmer to Home
The whole concept of launching MyKo Foods is to start #farmertohome movement for Alphonso mangoes. MyKo Foods is also concentrating on creating a global market for the mango farmers and their mangoes. MyKo Foods from its website www.mykofoods.com has already exported the first lot of 30 boxes to England and are expected to export over 1 lakh mango boxes to England, Europe and Germany besides exports to the Middle East.
MyKo Foods is keen to promote the real taste of authentic Konkan Hapus across the globe and to provide an international stage for the mango farmers to export their produce. This is done to ensure the consumers are getting the unadulterated Alphonso mango.
Speaking at the event Pravin Darekar, BJP shared, “It is heartening to see that farmer from Konkan has reached the stage where his fruits are being exported globally. I congratulate the 3 women entrepreneurs who have come together for the benefit of farmers and to ensure that our hapus mango is reaching out to a global audience. Improving the infrastructure in the region will also help in smoother transport of the fruits from the farms to the markets.”
Rajesh Athaide shared, “I also am a child from Konkan region. I am extremely happy that I could win the final highest and record breaking bid on the box of Alphonso mangoes. The bid amount is my way of honouring the hard working farmers and to encourage them to keep on producing quality fruits of us to enjoy. I laud the work started by Team MyKo, and I hope the 3 women entrepreneurs will carve a niche of themselves in working towards the betterment of mango farmers in Konkan Region and also in creating a global marketplace for their authentic mango fruits.”
The authentic experience
Sanjay Yadavrao Chairman Global Konkan and Advisor MyKo Foods said, “Konkan Alphonso or Hapus is the King of Mangoes and we are restoring the crown of the Konkan Hapus. Over the years, we have been eating adulterated mangoes which are not grown in the Konkan region, which left the connoisseurs of real hapus disappointed. However the Corona pandemic turned out to be a boon for mango famrers from Konkan as they could directly ship their fruits to the consumers thus eliminating the middlemen and procuring the correct price for the fruit and generating a profit. Around 25000 boxes were sold in a month last year. Also we are soon starting Mango Experience Tours in the Konkan region, which will let tourists experience the life on farm, savour the local cuisine and live the life of farmers.”
Supriya Marathe added, “MyKo has implemented a special QR code which when scanned will show the consumer all the details of the farm and farmer from which the Alphonso mangoes have been purchased. This will enable us to keep transparency in the process and confirm the authenticity of the mango fruit which is being sold is from Konkan region. This will help us with the exports as well and drive the MyKo products to newer international markets. We have started with 100 farmers this year and aim to reach out to 500 farmers next year and hope the numbers keep growing.”
Mango cultivators like Nana Gokhale from Saundal Devgad, Babu Avsare from Padve Rajapur, Pandharinath Amberkar from Kumbhavade, Sanjay Shirsekar from Shirse, Jaywant Velye from Wada Tiware, Gaurav Surve from Ratnagiri, Umang Salvi, Deepak Chavan, Tushar Sapte, Shekhar Dalvi were part of this historic auction.
Besides the top grossing box of mangoes, Ramesh Bhai Madat bid Rs 25000, Prasad Malpekar bid Rs 15000 for his box of mangoes, Builder Jagannath More, Architect Ganesh Yadav, Cricket Coach Nilesh Bhosale each raised Rs 12,000 each toward the farmer’s cause.
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Very very nice project. Feels good to know you are doing something great for people from Konkan