Indian mangoes win the heart of America

Indian mangoes hit the American market. Really sweet news for both nations. Now United States can taste the delicious taste of Alphonso and Kesar mangoes. Holding the peeled mango in hand and sucking the flesh down to the seed, deploying full length of tongue to lick the arms.. “How to eat a mango” is really an art to be mastered. Infact, for the Indians at US it will be a great nostalgic experience; I believe.

Alphonso is known as Haapoos in south asia. It is King of mangoes; exquisite and expensive variety of mango. It weighs between 150 gms. to 300 gms. The season is from April through May. The southern district of Ratnagiri and northern parts of Sindhudurg in Maharashtra state, including regions around the Devgad and Taluka, produce the finest quality alphonso mangoes in India. Alphonso is also cultivated largely in Pune. Kesar Mangoes is grown in the Gujarat state, Talala town here is famous for Kesar mangoes.

The United States were agreeing after 17 years of negotiations to permit the import of Indian mangoes. Last year there was a meeting of Indian commerce minister Kamal Nath, with US Trade representative Rob Portmann and took a decision on lifting Americas ban on Indian mangoes. It took one more year to finally launch Indian mangoes in the US market.

Until now, Indian mangoes were not allowed to be imported into the U.S. because they had not undergone a pest risk analysis. A recent investigation says that Indian farmers were using only 0.5 kg of pesticides per hectare when compared with heavy dosage used by other nations like US, UK, China and Japan. But, the Indian farmers were not given training and awareness about the correct usage of pesticides.

India produces 41% of world’s mangoes. United States imports 29% of all mangoes produced worldwide. Anyway it is good news for India having a sweet trade relation with United States.