Mosambis are mainly cultivated in Anantapur, Nalgonda, Kadapa, Kurnool and Prakasam districts of Andhra Pradesh. Except Prakasam, there has been overproduction in all the other places. In the Koyembedu wholesale fruit market in Chennai, 10 to 15 trucks of the citrus fruit are arriving daily.

Each truck consists of eight to nine tonne. The fruit is fetching a wholesale price of Rs 700 to Rs 1,800 per 1,000 mosambis, depending on the size, colour, sheen and quality. Last year the prices ranged from Rs 1,300 to Rs 3,000 per 1000 mosambis.

According to KR Ravi Kumar, a mosambidealer here, as there are no cold storage facilities for the fruit, traders are clearing the stock at whatever price available at the end of the day.

In the retail market here, each mosambi is being sold for Rs 1 to Rs 2, depending on the size. About 3.5 lakh mosambis (seven to eight truckloads) are currently being consumed daily in Chennai city alone.

The low prices of the fruit has resulted in the sudden mushrooming of many pushcarts in the city who are selling a glass of mosambi juice for as low as Rs 5. The fruit juice shops, however continue to sell the juice at the usual prices. A glass of mosambi juice (200 to 300 ml) is priced at Rs 10 at a roadside petty shop, Rs 15 at a small fruit shop and Rs 30 upwards at air-conditioned fruit-juice bars in the city. Only the 100 to 150 petty shops in the city, who sell mosambi juice alone, are being affected by the pushcartwallahs, as the 30 to 40 medium and 10 to 15 upmarket juice bars in the city have dedicated higher-end clientele, said mosambi juiceretailers here.