Weather damage slashes India’s Alphonso mango crop and hits exports
Weather extremes in Maharashtra have sharply reduced Alphonso mango output, while disruption linked to the Iran war has further weakened exports and trade.
In Devgad, one of Maharashtra’s best-known Alphonso mango districts, growers are facing one of the harshest seasons in decades. Reuters illustrated the pressure through the case of 26-year-old farmer Komal Walke, whose family’s three acres of orchards produced almost no Alphonso fruit this year. To keep supply commitments to India’s online grocers and avoid losing buyers next season, she has had to source fruit from larger farms instead of relying on her own output.
The crop failure was driven by weather shocks at more than one stage of the season. Government agriculture officer Bapusaheb Manikrao Lambade said a sharp difference between day and night temperatures in December and January damaged flowering and fruit setting. After that, hotter-than-usual weather in April and May, probably linked to the El Nino climate pattern, spoiled the fruits themselves. Officials now expect a strong El Nino this year and forecast adverse effects on crops across Asia, South America and Africa.
A government-backed survey by scientists and field officials, reviewed by Reuters, estimated this year’s crop losses in Devgad at 85% to 90%. Damage has also been reported in other mango-growing parts of Maharashtra. That matters at national scale because India is the world’s biggest mango grower and produced 28 million metric tonnes in 2024-25, according to CRISIL data cited in the report. Indian research firm Mordor Intelligence valued the country’s total mango crop at $2.3 billion last year and expects the market to expand to $3.4 billion by 2031.
Although most of the fruit stays in India, exports remain a meaningful revenue stream for the sector. In 2025, India exported about $56 million worth of fresh mangoes and another $80 million worth of mango pulp. This year, however, crop losses have collided with a separate trade setback linked to the Iran war. Shridhar Pathak, co-founder of exporter Shreevali Agro, said freight charges had more than doubled and that delays or cancellations of consignments to Gulf markets including Dubai and Oman had cut his shipments by nearly 40%.
The disruption is spreading well beyond orchard gates. Fruit originally intended for export is being redirected into local markets, pushing prices lower even though output is scarce. Sanjay Nare, a carton manufacturer in Malvan, said he was left with nearly 100,000 unsold mango boxes this year. He said the local economy is sustained by mangoes and fish, and that without the summer mango season there is very little else to support businesses across the region’s wider supply chain.