India’s fruit trees had a bumper harvest last year, leading the country to become the second largest fruit producer in the world, after China, according to the Ministry of Horticulture, as reported by The Times of India. India produced 82.631 million tonnes of fruit in 2014-15 while China topped the list with 154.364 million tonnes.
The Ministry has also stated that fruit production in India is faster than vegetables, despite the latter constituting a larger segment of the horticulture sector.
In fact, India is the world’s leading producer for some fruits like banana, mango and Papaya, while it is the second largest producer of sugarcane and the third largest producer of Coconut.
Banana constitutes a massive 33.41 per cent share in India’s fruit basket, in terms of quantity produced which was 29,725 tonnes in 2013-14. It is followed by mango, which constitutes 20.71 per cent share with 18,431 tonnes.
Among Indian states, Andhra Pradesh is the largest fruit-producing state with 13,939 tonnes, followed by Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
Of the 28 banana-producing states, Tamil Nadu (5,136 tonnes) is the largest producer of bananas followed by Gujarat and Maharashtra.
However, when it comes to export, grapes top the list. They occupy the premier position with 107.3 thousand tonnes, valued at Rs 1,086 crore in 2014-15, followed by banana and mango.