Mango tastes sour this summer as wholesale price sizzles at Rs 48.5 a kg, up 20.7%

Mango inflation inches up

The king of fruits is not so aam this summer, with the prices being considerably hotter than last year. Mango inflation stood a high 37 percent in June, as against 25 percent a month back.

The summer fruit was trading at a 12 percent premium of Rs 39.6 per kg in the wholesale market in the first two weeks of July, compared with Rs 35.4 per kg previous year.

But it is not just mango, other summer fruits are also showing signs of high inflation.

Musk melon or kharbooja has seen prices trend up an average 15.8 percent since the start of the fiscal, lychee inflation almost tripled in June to 15.2 percent from 4.6 percent.

In June, fruit inflation has been a high 7.4 percent compared to 3.3 percent in March 2024.

Experts indicate that the high inflation in fruits is likely to continue for the next few months.

“Perishables tend to have a cyclical behaviour; there is a lot of volatility during summers, due to global warming and production disruptions,” said Madhavi Arora, chief economist at Emkay Global Institutional Equities.

“With sowing patterns improving, cereals and pulses are likely to cool, but vegetables and fruits will take time to come off,” Arora added.

Vegetable inflation has stayed in 10 of the last 12 months and rose to 30.2 percent in June compared with 28.2 percent in the previous month.

Wholesale inflation in fruits almost doubled to 10.14 percent in June compared with 5.81 percent in the previous month.

Experts indicate that hot weather also had a role to play in lower production numbers.

“Hot weather has played a role in keeping prices higher and uneven distribution of monsoon hasn’t helped, so prices of fruits and vegetables are likely to stay higher for a brief period before they start tapering,” said Paras Jasrai, senior analyst, Ind-Ra. “Rising demand also has a role to play in higher prices."

Fruits and vegetables have 10 percent weight in the consumer basket.