Month: April 2011

This season is the first time we came online to connect with Alphonso lovers and get authentic Alphonso across to them. Home Delivery of Alphonso was our plan right from the start, along with this initiative. However, we faced some limitations, which is why we are not in a position to give home deliveries this season. We are sorry for that. We had to take that decision just two days ago.

Alphonso needs a certain care in the delivery process and we do not have our own people in the cities to ensure this care is taken. We had contacted some agencies who promised us deliveries. We tried them with dummy orders sent to people we knew to check their service. We were unhappy with the services we got. There were cases of mangoes being changed from the boxes, or the boxes were not handled well, and even issues in money collection.

The time was short and we had to make some arrangements quick. But it was really not possible to go ahead with the people we got in the cities for delivery. We have not been able to try out all people yet with the time restriction. We were able to get a pick-up centre in Mumbai at Girgaum, but had no time in hand to get and set up centres in other parts.

Dear patrons, you have supported us in our endeavor and given us confidence in our initiative. We request you to bear with us for this year and we promise a grand arrangement next year. Please be with us!

Dear Patrons,

We opened our order channel yesterday and notified all those who had registered with us. However, we later realized that only a few people could get the notifications on email. We take this opportunity to deeply apologize to those who did not get our notification.

We are new to the online system and we did not know certain restrictions here. We had sent emails to all those who registered, but there was an issue with the Gmail service, as we use Google Apps on our DevgadMango.com domain.

A large number of people had registered with and we sent an email to all, but Gmail blocked emails more than 100. We later learned that this service allows sending only 100 emails per day. We tried Google Groups, but that also did not let us add all those who had registered. We tried sending SMSes, but it was too cumbersome to type the numbers into the mobile phone and with the regulation of TRAI, we were blocked after 100 SMS.

We tried bulk SMS, but we were also blocked there because of the Do Not Disturb regulation.

Sorry for the inconvenience this caused you. Kindly do not carry the impression that we ignored notifying people who had shown interest beforehand!

Regards
Devgad Mango

Thanks for bearing with us while our member farmers battled in the orchards to save our Alphonso crop from various attacks, and alongside worked hard to set up channels to get authentic Alphonso across to you.

We are opening up orders for Alphonso on Devgadmango.com. Kindly register your order. However, factors out of our control have put some limitations on us for this year. Request you to kindly keep them in mind for this year.

• The Alphonso production is very low, so we can only service Pune and Mumbai for this year. Also the season is very short, less than a month, which is why we cannot send Alphonso to other cities and not export too.
• Also in Pune and Mumbai, we are not able to give home deliveries as we did not get reliable delivery persons. We wanted to send some of our members, but they would have faced problems in finding out addresses
• So in Pune and Mumbai, we have set up two places from where you can collect your order, and pay against pick up
  1. FOR PUNE: FUEL, Students Helpline Centre, Office No. 7, Bilwakunj, 810 A, Opposite Bhandarkar Institute, Law College Road, Shivaji Nagar, Pune – 411 004. For details, Contact: 8796801806
  2. FOR MUMBAI: Tara Bhuvan, Ground Floor, Shop No. 10, Khetwadi, 3rd Lane, 122 Nanubhai Desai Road, Closer to Wilson Highschool, Behind Alankar Cinema, Girgaum, Mumbai: 400 004, Contact: 8097498756
• It will take up to a week to get the Alphonso from our farms across to you from your order date.
• If we get more orders than the Alphonso our members produce, unfortunately, we will not be able to service all orders. For those who do not get Alphonso this year, we will issue discount coupons that they can use next year.
• Please take care of Alphonso Mango when you take them home. This care will be explained to you in a document. If in a rare case, if more than 10% (more than 1 Alphonso in 1 Dozen) go bad, we will give you a reimbursement.
• For reimbursement, there are the following options, the most feasible will be used.
  1. If we are closer, we will send you replacement fruit.
  2. If you come to our stall, you can get a replacement.
  3. We would send you a discount coupon, which you can use on future purchases.
  4. We will send you an Alphonso product, like pulp, pickle, etc, equal to the value of the Alphonso fruit you find bad.

We hope you get to enjoy your fruit. We will start planning for next year and on initiatives like Alphonso Bonds and Alphonso Festival for next year, which we will keep you posted on. We look forward to keeping up the interaction with you over the next year and will add your email to the Alphonso Family group for ongoing interactions.

We wish you the best and please keep up your patronage with us.

—
(Devgad Taluka Mango Growers Co-operative Society Ltd)
At Post. Jamsande, Tal. Devgad, Dist Sindhudurg, Maharashtra, India.
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Ever since we came online last week, people asked us a lot of questions, ranging from prices of our Alphonso, grades, delivery, etc. One question, which came up a lot was whether our Alphonso would be priced lower than the market price. We were kinda eager to know what the customers were comparing us with or had based their benchmark on. So we decided to do a test drive in Pune, to check out the mangoes being sold in the market there. We went into the mandis and also walked into the malls! The rates started upwards of Rs 500 per dozen, but more than that we were really appalled at the quality that was being sold.
Here are two of the mango we purchased that were being sold as Alphonso.

For reference to the size of the mango, we placed it on the palm of one of us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now please observe the image of the two mangoes. See the wrinkles on the mangoes. This is a clear indication that these mangoes are overripe! Now see the green tinge still there at the base of these mangoes. Alphonso which ripens naturally would never have a green color. These mangoes are overripe and still have a green tinge. You would never see such mangoes pass our quality criteria.

We knew what these mangoes were, but it was time to cut these mangoes and have them pose for a photo.

This is the state of the mangoes, which the person at the store told us was the best Alphonso. We tasted the side of the mango which was comparatively good. And it tasted awful. Nowhere close to the taste of the Alphonso.

Alphonso, or for that matter, any fruit is Nature’s creation. At times, though rarely, even a perfectly great looking Alphonso fruit can turn out to be bad from inside. Why that happens is a question no one can answer. That’s Nature’s creation and only Nature knows it.