Bhubaneswar, June 8 -- By Prasanna Mishra

Every summer, tonnes of mangoes ripen across the hills and valleys of Telkoi Block in Keonjhar district. Trees laden with fruits become a familiar sight. Farmers wait for traders to arrive. Bargaining begins. The harvest is sold. The season ends. And then the cycle repeats the following year.

For years, this has been the accepted model of mango farming in Odisha. Produce the fruit, sell it in the nearest market, and move on. Few farmers ask where the mango eventually goes. Even fewer imagine that the fruit growing in their orchards could one day be eaten in Dubai, London, Singapore, Amsterdam, or Tokyo. Yet that possibility is becoming increasingly real.

The question before Odisha is simple: sh...