HASSAN: Wholesale and retail merchants of mango are unhappy with business because of the lack of enough customers for the king of fruits in Hassan. Mango lovers, it seems, are staying away from the juicy fruit out of the fear of the Nipah virus, which recently claimed 11 lives in neighbouring Kerala.
The few customers who do come shopping for mangoes in wholesale and retail markets, or to buy them from street vendors are hesitant to buy in large quantities of even the first quality of different varieties of the fruit.
Most wholesale merchants are reportedly incurring heavy losses because of the decomposing of unsold mangoes at godowns. Half of them, understandably, have stopped purchasing the fruit from Tamil Nadu, Kerala as also other parts of the state due to poor business, following speculations of the Nipah virus that went viral in social media.
Girish, a wholesale merchant at Santepet market says there is no demand for mangoes this year “due to speculations over the Nipah virus”. Blaming people for airing speculations about Nipah, Puttaswamy Shetty, wholesale fruit merchant who operates from RC Road said the sale of banana, sapota, apple, grapes and papaya has also drastically come down in the last fortnight. Wholesale merchants are being forced to sell mangoes for as little ast Rs 10 per kg to retailers, who sell them at Rs 25-35 per kg to customers in the market. Retailers say customers are referring mangoes that come from local growers.
Hawkers and street vendors are the worst hit as they wait for the season that lets them make enough money even for the rainy day, and don’t even have an alternate livelihood, according to Syed Irfan, who told The New Indian Express on Wednesday that are this year they are witnessing the “worst sale ever”.
Interestingly, Mango Mela organised by the district horticulture department at the city bus stand premises in Hassan is attracting customers to some extent, as growers here are selling “only mangoes that are naturally ripened”.
People are not willing to believe clarifications that the situation in the aftermath of the outbreak of the virus is not as bad as has been made out by messages circulated through the social media.