(This story originally appeared in on Mar 29, 2017)

Pune Mirror

Chinese ripening product floods market

Mirror

Market Yard is in the thick of mango season, but the king of fruits is in clear and chemical danger. As crate upon crate of the choicest varieties from various parts of the country are being offloaded in the fruit market, Pune Agricultural Produce Market Committee APMC ) has caught a few mango sellers artificially ripening the fruits with harmful chemical sprays that may cause serious health hazards.So, APMC has decided to form a local squad of vigilantes that would be conducting random checks on the mango trade and the ripening process. If anything suspicious is found, immediate action would be taken on those responsible. Shared Pune APMC secretary Dilip Khaire, “Since the beginning of the mango season, the main thing which we always keep a tab on is how the fruits are ripened. Over the years, there have been many cases and complaints against the traders for wrongly ripening the fruits with hazardous chemicals.On Sunday, a couple of mango sellers from outside the market were found using such banned chemical sprays inside the market premises, after which action was taken on them. So now, to keep a strict vigil on the mango trading at Market Yard, APMC has made squads that will be doing surprise checks all around the market. If anyone is found ripening the mangoes with the banned chemicals, they would have to shell out hefty fines.”Khaire added, “Ethrel is the only government approved ripening chemical traders can use. What these sellers were using was not Ethrel but something locally procured, which is why we got suspicious.” Mangoes began trickling into the Pune market from the last week of January. While the initial lot came just from Karnataka, now there are mangoes from Ratnagiri, Karnataka and Kerala in regular supply. On an average, around 6,000 boxes of mangoes (four dozen mangoes in each box) arrive at the market daily. Apart from the authorised traders and agents, farmers and other agents also sell mangoes in and around Market Yard during the season. The rate per box of four to six dozen mangoes ranges between Rs 1,200 and Rs 2,500, depending on the quality of fruit.Traders expressed their share of concerns, too, with Yuvraj Kanchi , chairman of the Shri Chhatrapati Shivaji Market Yard Traders’ and Agents’ Association at the Pune APMC, saying, “Now that the mango season is in full swing, we traders are very concerned about how the fruits are ripened. For, when the customers come, they want to buy readyto- eat fruits. Once any fruit comes to the market, it takes a minimum of 10 days to ripen naturally. But there is hardly enough space to store such a huge quantity of mangoes that flow in on a daily basis.”Kanchi explained that, earlier, most of the traders used to use a ‘carpet’ chemical for ripening the mangoes, which was banned by the state government a few years ago. “Since then, we use Ethrel for ripening, which is sprayed over the fruits. Our association has also issued pamphlets to all the authorised traders and agents at Market Yard, asking them not to use any banned chemical for ripening. If anyone is found doing such a thing, the association will never support it and the APMC will certainly take action. But we have also demanded for a temporary ‘ripening chamber’ from APMC, with a minimum storage capacity of 25,000 fruits at a time.”Whencontacted Madan Yerawar, minister of state for Food and Drug Administration (FDA), he said, “During this peak season for mangoes, our FDA team is constantly working on how to keep vigil over the various markets across the state. Pune, Mumbai and Konkan see mango trading on a huge scale, so there is an extra need to focus on the ripening process at these places. Before the mango season, our officials have given proper training to the APMC markets in Pune about the ripening process. Still, if anyone is using banned local chemicals to ripen the fruit, then we will take action.”‘Made in China’ products have long flooded the Indian markets. Now, they have encroached into agriculture as well.spotted a Chinese Ethylene ripener product at Market Yard on Tuesday, which traders are testing this year. This is the first time that such a Chinese ripening product has been seen in the market. “To ripen a box of four dozen mangoes, we have to have four sachets of this Chinese Ethylene ripener. First, we need to make the chemical wet in water and then keep it on four sides of the box for a minimum of 12 hours. It generates heat, the fruit inside ripens and its colour changes.But, we are not sure whether the state government will give permission to use this ripening product,” said a trader who has brought this Chinese product, on condition of anonymity. On hearing about the new product, Yerawar assured, “We will run a check for the new Chinese product that has come into the market to speedily ripen the fruit. It will be tested in our labs to ascertain whether it is safe.”