The state horticulture director AR Sukumar told The Financial Express that mango arrivals into the city are in the region of 150 to 200 truck loads every day.

The retail prices are, however, ruling high. The prices are expected to come down as inflows increase in the next few days, marketmen feel. The mango crop last year was a total failure and the harvest was in the range of a paltry 1.75 lakh tonnes to 2 lakhs tonnes.

Horticulture department officials attribute the good harvest to the perfect agro-climatic conditions that prevailed in the state during the flowering period of November-December last year.

There were no unseasonal showers and the night temperatures were low, ideal for mango crop cultivation.

The mango crop would have been much better had the Bangainpally variety of mango, which is very popular in the state, hadnot been affected due to late flowering of hermaphrodite flowers, Sukumar said.

Andhra Pradesh is home to over 2000 varieties of mango of which over 200 are popular in the state.

It is grown in the six major districts of Krishna, Chittoor, East Godavari, West Godavari, Ranga Reddy and Mahboobnagar over an area of 2.76 lakh hectares. The state tops in the country in mango production.

Apart from the ideal agro-climatic conditions, horticulture department officials attribute the success of the mango crop output to the extensive training programmes undertaken by the department in educating the farmers on better farming techniques.

Department officials are however hoping that climatic conditions would not turn adversely until the harvest season which goes up to July end. Sukumar said that the Telegana region of the state wold soon emerge as the mango bowl of the state.He said the productivity per hectare in the state had also gone up with the yield per hectare going up to 10 tonnes per hectare this year.This, he said, was because of educating the farmers about high density planting of mango crops.

He was hopeful that in another four years' time the state's yield per hectare would match that of Israel's which has an yield of 40 tonnes per hectare.

As regards exports, Sukumar said the government has not been able to bring in technology to improve the low-shelf life of mango.