The ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (ICAR-IIHR) in Bengaluru has developed a single post-harvest hot water treatment that controls both fruit fly and anthracnose in mangoes, AgroSpectrum reported. It could shorten handling time, reduce spoilage and avoid internal breakdown in Alphonso mangoes.
Mature green mangoes are dipped in water at 55°C for 20 minutes, then in a 5% salt solution for 30 minutes. Until now, fruit fly control required hot water at 48°C for 60 minutes, which can cause internal breakdown in Alphonso, and anthracnose needed a separate treatment at 52°C for five to 10 minutes. Doing both at once removes a step for packhouses and exporters. The protocol has been validated in scale-up trials on Alphonso, Banganapalli and IIHR's hybrids Arka Uday and Arka Suprabhat.
The institute facilitated a 1.2-tonne export of Banganapalli mangoes treated this way, flown from Chennai to Brunei on 25 June 2026 by exporter Haseena Roshan of Millet Smile, Yelahanka. The buyer confirmed the fruit arrived in good condition, free of fruit fly and anthracnose.
Use for exports to markets that require an approved phytosanitary treatment still depends on acceptance by India's Directorate of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage. Once approved, IIHR says, the protocol could cut quarantine hot water treatment time by about a third compared with the 60-minute fruit fly treatment. Wider use will also depend on more consignments and the cost of treatment at commercial scale.
Fruit fly is a quarantine barrier in many import markets and anthracnose a major cause of rot in storage, for Bangladeshi mango exporters as much as Indian ones, so a single shorter treatment that handles both is a practical tool if regulators accept it.
Photo: Thamizhpparithi Maari / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: AgroSpectrum
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