By Jaidev Sharma, ZZMango Reporter
2025 Mango Season Orchard Report
In 2024, ZZ Mango Reporter Anil Sharma reported from orchards in India and Pakistan during the mango season. His reports were followed by a few people- Anil sure had a lot of fun !!
In 2025, we want to keep it interesting and informative. Jaidev Sharma will be visiting some of the prime mango areas in March before the start of the season. We will be providing updates and videos in this blog, which will get updated regularly with new information. The plan is to visit the following areas displayed on the map below.
2025 Mango Season ... here we come ...
STOP 1: BANARASI LANGRA, Uttar Pradesh, India
Banarasi Langra- a divine fruit !!
– article by Jaidev Sharma
Banarasi Langra is my favorite fruit so the following article is expected to be highly biased. But it is also completely true !!
Mango has its Kings (the alphonso), Queens (the kesar) and Emperors (the Chausa), but no one can claim divinity like the Langra mango from Banaras. The Langra mango grown in and aound the ancient city of Banaras (also known as Kashi or Varanasi) is famous as the Banarasi Langra worldwide. For starters, Banaras is considered to be oldest and … read full article
Maha Kumbh in the land of Langra-Chausa-Dussehri
In 2025, a festival that marks a unique celestial event (unique alignment of the planets in 144 years) was held in January and February. 600 million people took a dip in the river Ganga in this period to mark the occassion. The state of Uttar Pradesh in India from where we get our Langra, Chausa and Dussehri mangoes was engulfed in a sea of humanity. On our orchard tour, we had the opportunity to experience this unique human gathering. Some photographs are attached which give a flavor of the event (photographs by Jaidev Sharma)…
STOP 2: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Mumbai is the financial capital of India. It is the ultimate melting pot where the old-new, rich-poor, young-old, all religions and cultures come together. Our mangoes are also mostly brought to Mumbai, processed here following the USDA specified procedures and shipped to us in the USA where they are further prepared and sent to our customers.
STOP 3: Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India
Ratnagiri, the City of Mangoes, is a quiet unassuming town with simple folks who take immense pride in the fact that the most famous mango in the world comes from their town. Nature has blessed the ratnagiri area with unique soil and weather, which along with centuries of knowhow and hardwork creates an environment which produces a fruit like none else known to mankind. This is perhaps the most sensitive of the mangoes that exist. Nature gave them the best, but also told them that the best will hold only when the best is treated with the utmost care that it needs. So no short cuts are allowed by nature- if there is a variation either natural or manmade, the fruit misbehaves and conditions such as spongy tissue show up in the fruit. This is also nature’s way to keep the residents of Ratnagiri grounded. They are perhaps the most unassuming and gentle souls you will encounter, especially the mango growers. They have been extolled for their majestic fruit and also berated for the issues that show up when the fruit spoils that they operate in an equilibrium which pervades their life.
The Ratnagiri Alphonso Mango which is about 2-3 weeks from maturity is shaping up well. We expect the fruit to get ready last week of March. The US inspectors are expected to come to India around April 1, so we should be all set to receive our fruit the first week of April. The first few shipments of the season are special- they are more flavorful and due to the mild heat, the fruit also has lesser incidence of sponginess. This fruit also matures slowly. As the season’s heat and stress progresses, the fruit becomes more sensitive, although it becomes sweeter and matures quickly.
The fruit in 2025 is following an interesting pattern. The weather was unusually warm this year, so flowering has been good and plenty. When flowers get pollinated and fruit forms, at that time a little cold is needed for fruit to sustain- this happened at some of our orchards and the fruit from the first flowering which generally matures in mid February is getting ready now.- we expect to ship this fruit during the first week of April.
In some instances, the first flowering did not sustain at all and the flowers could not take the heat and withered away. The second flowering then started and that fruit is small, expected to be ready by mid May.
In some orchards, the second flowering also could not sustain and was lost, then the third flowering started, which I could see on some trees- let us see what happens to it. In some orchards, the trees were simply confused at what was happening, they stopped flowering and started focusing on growing leaves and we could see trees like that as well. So this is how the alphonso mango trees in Ratnagiri have handled global warming.
Many other varieties also grow in Ratnagiri- infact a healthy mix of varieties is recommended for cross-pollination. We have Payri, Kesar, Ratna and other varieties also in this region.
Ratnagiri also has an excellent beach. It is this promxmity to the sea, coupled with the red mountain soil and the dry land which makes the flavor or Ratnagiri unique.
STOP 4: Devgad, Maharashtra, India
Devgad is a city about 100 kms south of Ratnagiri. The mango here is also considered among the best of the alphonso. The fruit from Devgad is also GI (Geographic Indicator) protected- only the fruit grown in this area can be called Devgad alphonso. The fruit from Ratnagiri is also GI protected in the same way. We checked with our organic orchard in Devgad- the fruit here is shaping up well and is expected to be ready after April 15.
The Devgad alphonso is a bit different from the Ratnagiri Alphonso. The Devgad alphonso develops it flavor only when it becomes ripe, unline the Ratnagiri alphonso which starts to develop flavor from the start. So you have to be more patient with this fruit, otherwise you will be left wondering why people are so fanatic about it…
You can ready another article about these 2 alphonso mangoes here...
Stop 5: Dharwar, Karnataka, India
Dharwad is a town in Karnataka bordering Maharashtra. We have to cross the ghats to reach Dharwad. This is another area blessed with good soil and climate. Among other varieties, it also grows the alphonso mango and its farmers take pride in the fruit. They feel that their alphonso has a unique flavor and are trying to have it GI (Geographical Indicator) protected.
STOP 6: Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, India
Kadapa is not a town well known, except for a few things, such as its mangoes. This is a relatively dry area with soil that is heavenly blessed. There are hills, rocks and plains. Varieties such as Banganpalli, Himayat (Imam Pasand), Totapuri, Alphonso, Neelam, Malgova, etc. grow here. However, its Banganpalli is special- of all the Banganpalli that we have tried, the fruit from this region stands out. So we try to get all of our fruit from here. We have tried to find out why this fruit is so divine- the only sane explanation seems to be that it is specially blessed by Lord Balaji (Lord Vishnu), who resides in a temple in the hills of Tirumala and which oversees all these lands !!
Read an old article on the Banganpalli mango (BANGANPALLI MANGO- the Pride of Andhra) here…
The Banganpalli that grows in this region has a delicate thin skin when ripe- some people like to eat the skin as well (although I don’t). The skin becomes delicate yellow with black dots oozing sugar out from the big pores. The flesh also turns yellowish and the taste turns divine sweet !! The Banganpalli transforms into something which turns people crazy !!
This season, the Banganpalli was just developing as of March 8. A lot of the flowering was wasted due to sudden high temperatures. Our orchards had some fruit which was still small. We are expecting the Banganpalli to be ready after May 15!! Totapuri and Himayat are expected to be ready shortly afterwards.
