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Buying the real Alphonso goes easier: the GI-tagged mango is traceable
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Saturday, 24 April, 2021, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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Picking the first fragrant batch of ripe Alphonso to celebrate the beginning of summer is a tradition in many Indian families. Thanks to FarmTrace, they can now rest assured that they have picked the original king of mangoes, the GI-tagged Konkan Alphonso.
The innovative traceability solution from Innoterra Tech works with a simple sticker scan and provides consumers with key information points, such as point of origin, farm location and timeline, displayed on their mobile phones. The technology not only helps consumers but also farmers in the Konkan belt.
By tagging their Alphonso fruit, they can ensure that they receive the right premium for their produce. Speaking about the development, Dr. Vivek Bhide, Chairperson of Konkan Alphonso Mango Producers and Sellers Cooperative Association, said: “Recently, many national and international variants of mangoes, such as ones from Malawi in Africa, are being sold in the market as ‘Alphonso mangoes. As Alphonso mangoes are GI-tagged, this is incorrect practice. Establishing traceability for original Alphonso mangoes will not only help consumers to get value for their money, but also curb product falsification and mislabelling. The true beneficiaries will be the farmers, who will immediately see 10%+ improvement in their income.”
Making GI-tagged Alphonso accessible
Alphonso, the premium mango variety named after Portuguese general Alphonsode Albuquerque, has won worldwide acclaim for being the richest in taste and most fragrant and vibrant mango variant, fetching the highest premium of all mango variants. Over 15,000 MT of the fruit are exported every year from India, mainly to the Middle East, UK, China and Europe.
The Alphonso mangoes are produced largely in the Konkan belt in the state of Maharashtra. The variant was granted a GI tag in 2020 for its unique origin. The challenge, however, has been to ensure that the original fruits from Konkan get to retain the GI tag and that the authorities are able to curb false claims by fruit producers through complete traceability of the fruit to the origin.
This is where FarmTrace as a tech-enabled solution plays a key role. Suniti Gupta, MD and CEO of Innoterra Tech, explains: “Our solution is based on technology architecture that links data already logged by food producers and suppliers, tracks each piece of fruit based on a unique sticker. Scanning the sticker QR code will let the consumers know the location of the farm, the batch number, processing unit, packaging unit, shipping information as well as complete timeline of these steps. Thus, the complete journey of a fruit from the farm to the retail shelf is made available to the consumers. This is especially relevant for all GI-tagged products, as authenticity and source of origin are very important in ensuring the right value for producers.”
Gupta also confirms that Innoterra Tech is currently working on integrating the solution with Blockchain to make the supply chain data verifiable and building trust with the consumers. “FarmTrace is already successfully deployed by Desai AgriFoods and DistriCo, both Innoterra business units, to make their food offerings completely traceable. This gives us confidence that we can scale this solution to cover a variety of products in the food ecosystem,” she adds.
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