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MUMBAI, India — The Indian mango, and in particular the Alphonso, is a much-coveted and much-fetishized fruit by Indians, loved as much for its flavor as for its scarcity. Because of its rarity the fruit has achieved near-mythical importance in India, where access to mangoes early in the season is a sign of prestige.

Arshi Krishnachar was beaming Saturday after he had just purchased his first box of Alphonso mangoes this season at Crawford Market, this city’s historic marketplace.

“I absolutely love mangoes, and Alphonso mangoes from Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri region are the best in the world,” said Mr. Krishnachar, 39, who works at the India office of Philips, the Dutch technology conglomerate. “Mangoes are special because they are not always available, but come to the market only in the season. And secondly, they have a beautiful taste. In summer, you eat mangoes and you get good sleep.”

This mango season, from March until June or July, Mr. Krishnachar and his fellow mango lovers will see whether there can be too much of a good thing, after the European Union banned Indian mangoes, including the famed Alphonsos, on May 1. The ban stems from the European Union claims that Indian mangoes are not adequately treated to cut the risk of fruit fly infestation.

Since then, the fruit has been flooding the local market to the point of excess, causing prices to drop drastically, which is good for consumers, but not for the farmers and traders.

At Crawford Market, mangoes were everywhere on Saturday – sold in the parking lot, by wiry men ferrying boxes on their heads, at hastily created temporary stalls.

“Business has been slow and the market is overflowing with unwanted supply,” said Kisan Bheke, 50, a mango retailer and exporter whose stall, the Shree Ganesh Fruit Stall, has been in Crawford Market since 1960. Mangoes usually retail for $13 to $17 a dozen, but since the ban, the prices have dropped to $8 to $10 a dozen.

Before the ban, Mr. Bheke’s stall exported about 1,000 boxes of mangoes every week to Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, Britain and Germany. Since the ban, Mr. Bheke has cut the number of mangoes he orders from the wholesale market in Vashi, a Mumbai suburb, by 50 percent.

In addition to mangoes, the European Union’s ban also covered shipments of Indian vegetables, including bitter gourd, snake gourd and eggplant, from May until December 2015. The ban was issued after authorities in Brussels discovered 207 consignments infested with fruit flies. New Delhi has asked the European Union to reconsider the ban on Indian mangoes, saying that an “elaborate examination and certification procedure” has been put in place to address the concerns raised.

Keith Vaz, a British parliamentarian of Indian origin, has protested the ban, saying, “This is Euro nonsense and bureaucracy gone mad. Indian mangoes have been imported to Britain for centuries.” He also had two boxes of Alphonso mangoes delivered to 10 Downing Street, the residence of the British prime minister, David Cameron, to raise awareness about the issue.

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India, the world’s largest producer of mangoes, grows about 15 million tons of the fruit, roughly 40 percent of the global production. According to the Agriculture & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, of the 55,600 metric tons of mangoes exported by India in 2012-2013, worth $44 million, only about 3,890 metric tons went to countries of the European Union.

“The bulk of our mango exports, about 80 percent, go to the Middle East, where there is a large migrant Indian population,” said Devinder Sharma, a food and trade policy analyst. “The result of the ban in the European Union will therefore only have a limited impact on India’s export market, though prices will be momentarily impacted.”

But the loss of export market comes as farmers across Maharashtra are already grappling with crop failure because of unseasonal rain and hailstorms. According to Mohan Gurnani, the president of the Federation of Associations of Maharashtra, the ban over two mango seasons would mean losses of up to $10 million for Maharashtra farmers.

“This will have a direct effect on the small-scale regional sellers and farmers who are expected to become the victim of the low-price domino effect,” the food sector experts at Frost & Sullivan, an international consulting firm based in California, said in an email.

They added that while Indian exporters can expect about a 30 percent fall in revenue as a result of the ban, it could “serve as a wake-up call to revamp the certification system, the supply chain and cold chain for the Indian agricultural produce.”

However, some exporters argue that the European Union’s ban is not the only reason behind the drop in prices.

“Because of drastic climatic changes across Maharashtra impacting the mangoes, farmers are plucking early and sending too much supply to the market,” said Arvind Morde, 68, whose family exports Alphonso mangoes across the world as corporate gifts and has had a retail outlet in Crawford Market since 1920.

He added that the slowdown of the economy in general has also led to a reduction in the quantity of mangoes given as gifts by companies and individuals.

For those traders who depend on the European Union market, the blow has been considerable.

“Business is very slow right now because export has been blocked,” said Jitu Mhaske, 29, who exports mangoes to Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and the Middle East and has a stall at Crawford Market. He said that he expected his mango business would fall by about 50 percent, or $33,000, this year.

“Earlier, we got about 100 cartons of mangoes from the wholesale market in Vashi every day; now because the export orders are canceled, we get about 50 cartons of mangoes every day,” he said.

On the bright side, domestic consumers, who have long suspected that the best quality mangoes were sent abroad for higher prices, will have access to export-quality produce at lower prices.

Mr. Mhaske said the large organic mangoes of the finest quality commanded $25 per dozen overseas, a price that Indian consumers were not willing to pay. “The one good thing though is that though our exports have stopped our own people will eat more mangoes this year,” he said.

However, even with a 40 percent drop in prices, the Alphonso remains elusive for India’s common man. “It is difficult for the common man in India to get mangoes yet, because they are still quite expensive,” said Mr. Krishnachar, who paid $8 for a dozen mangoes. “Upper-middle-class and to an extent middle-class people can afford mangoes; for people of lower middle class and below, it is still out of reach.”