Around the world, Alphonso mangoes have long been prized for their sweetness and aroma. Yet for many urban households, the relationship with the fruit has become transactional — bought from markets or online, picked early and ripened with chemicals, with little visibility into its origins or the farmers behind it.
A small Kochi-based venture called Rent A Tree offers a different arrangement. Customers lease an entire Alphonso mango tree for one harvest season. The company manages cultivation, harvesting and delivery while the renter receives the full yield, typically 30 to 90 kilogram depending on the rental package. The mangoes arrive in batches as the fruit matures naturally.
While running his edu-tech startup in Bengaluru, Umesh Damodaran frequently travelled to Tamil Nadu, where he discovered premium Alphonso mangoes. “I shared these mangoes with my neighbours, and one of them asked if it was possible to bring the complete yield from a single tree. From there, I got the idea,” he says, recalling how his journey began. The company started with an experimental season in 2024. “We continued in 2025, and now it’s the third season in 2026.”
Today, the company offers 200 trees for the Rent A Tree programme, about 1 per cent of the 20,000 trees it manages overall. The rest follow conventional wholesale channels. “In the conventional model, we manage the tree, take the harvest and hand it over to the middleman. At the end of the season, we send the bulk to pulp factories,” he says. The company plans to scale the rental side gradually while keeping the majority of its trees in the conventional model for now.
Bookings open 11 months before harvest—a token of `1,000 reserves a tree. Full payment is made only when the tree begins flowering, typically 6 months before harvest. Packages are tiered by expected volume: base (30-50 kg), standard (45-75 kg) and premium (60-90 kg). Pricing starts around `10,300 for the base and rises accordingly.
Harvesting follows a schedule that differs from industry norms. “Our USP is that our mangoes are tree-ripened. We keep them on the tree until they reach 80 per cent maturity and above before plucking. The mango ripens naturally after that,” says Umesh. “Conventionally, mediators book the trees at 70 per cent maturity or lower. If the mango ripens above that, they won’t take it. These mangoes are then sent to godowns, where they get what is called a ‘mango facial’. They are dipped in chemical tanks with carbide and other sprays to make them golden and shiny. The chemicals then enter the fruit from the stalk.”
A second quality check occurs right before the boxes are sealed. The fruit continues to ripen naturally in transit, taking roughly seven days to fully ripen, with a shelf life of about 10 days from plucking. These mangoes are not treated with any chemicals, preservatives, or ripeners.
The Rent A Tree model shifts some risk from farmers. Conventional chains involve multiple intermediaries who sometimes push early harvests for volume. Farmers face price volatility and debt. Leasing provides guaranteed payment for the season’s output while local labourers handle day-to-day care. For customers, it offers traceability and involvement without actual farming labour.
This season, all 200 trees have been rented out. Bookings for the 2027 season are expected to open in April. Customers who prefer not to lease an entire tree can still place pre-orders for mango boxes. Deliveries reach households all over India, with Rent A Tree having customers in twenty states and two union territories.