Karnataka farmers are teaming up with e-commerce major Flipkart for the home delivery of mangoes, an official said on Tuesday.
"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," Rajendra Kumar Kataria, Principle Secretary, Department of Horticulture, told .
Kataria 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 Karatria. As a second option, the board also enabled the RWAs to book the fruits online.
"And now Flipkart has come forward, saying that it will provide a vital customer base. One can book through Flipkart and have access to various fruits," said Kataria.
Flipkart will now coordinate with the farmers. It will have some earmarked pickup centres from where the fruits will be picked up by the e-tailer to do the rest of the activity, Kataria said.
"Flipkart will add some handling commission, which they will charge," added Kataria, without detailing how much the charges will be.
Some of the mango varieties the board helps the farmers to grow include Alphonso, Banganpalli, Dashehari, Kesar, Neelum, Mallika, Muloga, Amrapali, Raspuri, Totapuri, Sendura and Himam Pasand.
The Karnataka mango board aims to improve the social and economic standards of farmers by helping them become a producer-exporter and also be a part of the national initiative of doubling farmers' income by 2022.
The board also facilitates mango growers to achieve quality produce and help in harvest management, direct marketing, exports and processing.
Two mango development centres, one at Hogalagere and another at Madikere, are being run by the board.
( With inputs from IANS )