Mukesh Ambani requires no introduction. He is one of the richest individuals in Asia with multiple enterprises in areas such as oil refining telecommunications networks retail giant and beyond. But did you know that the richest person in India owns Asia’s largest mango orchard? Over 200 varieties of mangoes are grown here. Well Reliance owned by Ambani is one of the largest mango exporters in the world. Where is Asia’s largest mango orchard owned by Ambani located? In the late 1990s Reliance Industries faced stringent environmental regulations at its Jamnagar refinery. The Pollution Control Board was looking for real achievable change not just paperwork. While many other companies were making short-term fixes Reliance decided to do something different — they planted trees and made a massive agricultural project ultimately worth billions of dollars. How did Asia’s largest mango orchard come into existence? In 1997 while the corporate world was busy with dot-com booms and oil trade Reliance started quietly transforming a barren 600-acre piece of land near Jamnagar into an active mango orchard. The orchard would be named Dhirubhai Ambani Lakhibag Amrayee which took its name from the famous Lakhibag orchard founded by Mughal Emperor Akbar in the 16th century fuelling an environmental project and connecting India’s rich heritage of mangoes. The land surrounding Jamnagar was challenging for agriculture. The soil was salt-affected it had poor water retention and was accompanied by adverse climatic factors that rendered it almost impossible to farm. Reliance discovered the challenges and systematically warded them off with careful planning. They set in place a desalination plant to clear the salt from water systematically employed drip irrigation for reduced application of water and made use of fertigation to apply nutrients directly to the root zones. Rainwater harvesting helped too. Slowly previously identified barren land became an orchard filled with fruit. Which Mango varieties are grown in the Orchard? This isn’t simply a mango orchard — it feels more like a fruit museum. It consists of over 130000 trees with more than 200 different varieties. The orchard has both Indian varieties such as Kesar Alphonso Sindhu Ratna Neelam and Amrapali and international varieties like Tommy Atkins and Kent from Florida and Keitt Maya and Lily from Israel. The harvest is about 600 tonnes of mangoes every year in export-quality form. From gourmet stores in Mumbai to purchasers in the Middle East and Europe these mangoes spread out far and wide. Each year thousands of tonnes of the premium mangoes are exported around the world from Dhirubhai Ambani Lakhibagh Aamrai because of their amazing taste smell and quality. If media reports are to be believed Reliance has a 25% share in Indias premium mango market which it ships via a vast retail network of over 10000 Reliance Retail outlets and online to wide consumer awareness amounting to approximately Rs 200 crore (US$25 million) a year in annual sales to domestic consumers. Reliance also provides contemporary farming training to the local farmers here. Each year nearly 1 lakh plants are given to the farmers at no cost to help them make some additional income. Notably mangoes have made a very strong business connection between India and America and Mukesh Ambanis orchard is helping to meet the rising demand for Indian mangoes in the U.S. and in Europe.
