It is not a marketing decision. It is what the morning market and a loaded scooter in a Raipur summer will allow.
Procurement starts at around half past three in the morning. The wholesale market is at its best before dawn, and by seven the good lots are gone and what is left has already spent hours in rising heat.
From there the fruit is graded, sorted and packed between four and half past five. Routes leave from six. Every route is built so the last delivery on it lands before nine.
The reason for the cut-off is simple: by ten in the morning in a Raipur summer, fruit sitting in a delivery bag on a scooter is not the same fruit that left the packing station. Rather than promise a window we cannot protect the quality across, we end the morning at nine.