Karnataka farmers to ‘Flipkart’ mangoes

“The mango board (Karnataka State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation Ltd) is connecting mango growers and farmers producer organisations (FPO) with Flipkart for home delivery of mangoes,” said Rajendra Kumar Kataria, Principle Secretary, Department of Horticulture.

 He said the e-commerce player will market the farmers’ produce to a wider audience. “Flipkart has a major customer base and it will be pushing the information to its clientele. When people visit the website, they will have information about the mangoes,” he said.

 According to Kataria, the prices of the fruits will fixed by the farmers, while the e-tailer will coordinate with them and present the produce on its platform for sale. Earlier, the mango board connected the farmers with the Residents Welfare Associations (RWAs) to enable their produce to be directly transported to the apartment gates for sale.

 “RWAs used to request the mango board to oblige for bulk supply of mangoes to their apartment gates,” said Kataria.

 As a second option, it also enabled the RWAs to book the fruits online. “And now Flipkart has come forward, saying it will provide a vital customer base. One can book through Flipkart and have access to various fruits,” said Kataria.

 “Flipkart will add some handling commission, which they will charge,” he added, without detailing how much the charges will be.