Thane: Direct sale of oranges grown by Vidarbha farmers to the district residents sans any middlemen has evoked an encouraging response and is proving to be a profitable initiative for the farmers, officials said.

A counter selling the famed oranges, which was on Thursday put up at the Zila Parishad premises in Thane, turned out to be a huge draw on the day one, with a record sale of about 1.5 tonnes of the fruit.