Mango, the highest juicy and delicious fruit of the summer season, has started appearing in the markets of Rajshahi from yesterday. Some indigenous varieties along with ‘Guti’ have appeared in the markets, but most consumers are frustrated with the high price. However, the consumers have to wait for some more couple of days to get the popular Gopalbhog in full scale.

The popular summer fruit will be available in the local markets by first week of June abundantly when all the varieties of mangoes will appear in the markets. At the wholesale markets of Rajshahi and Baneswarhat, the early variety of ‘Guti’ mango is being sold at Tk 1,200 to 1,400 per maund.

The ‘Guti’ mangoes are comparatively sour and less in taste and also short in size. With the ‘Guti’ mangoes, some best quality indigenous varieties of mangoes are also being sold in the markets. Ziaur Rahman Liton, a mango orchard owner in Rajshahi, informed that Gopalbhog will appear in the market abundantly within a few days.  And afterwards, the Khirsapat and Langra mangoes will also appear.

Meanwhile, Rajshahi district administration has fix the mango harvesting schedule as in previous years. The district administration recently organised a special meeting with mango farmers, traders and members of law enforcement agencies.

However, Gopalbhog will be harvested on May 20, Ranipasand and Laxmanbhog on May 25, Khirsapat or Himsagar on May 28, Langra on June 6, Amrapali, Fazli and Surma Fazli on June 16, and Ashwina varieties on July 1 in phases. At the meeting, the decision was drawn by Rajshahi district administration despite concerns of growers that the mangoes will not ripen until May-end. Dr Alim Uddin, Principal Scientific Officer of Rajshahi Fruit Research Centre, said due to favorable weather the mango trees of various varieties under Rajshahi district had early bloomed and making the growers hopeful about a plentiful production of the popular fruit in the current season.

Mango grower Hafizur Rahman Khan of Godagari Upazila said the favorable weather has helped the trees blossom to the full this year. For this reason they hoped that the much-expected selling-buying binge will be getting momentum throughout the district.

Anwarul Haque, another mango grower of the city, is also expecting a huge profit this year from his mango orchard by watching Gopalbhog mangoes on his tree. In this season, around 18 thousand hectares of land have been brought under mango cultivation and 2,13,426 metric tons mango production targets have been set in the district.