After 18 yrs, mangoes leave for US today

A consignment of mangoes is likely to leave for the US tomorrow, the first time after 18 years. The New York-bound fruits will be the second success story in a row for the King of Fruits. Last year, Indian mangoes were exported to Japan for the first time after a gap of 20 years.

"The first trial consignment of 7.2 quintals of mangoes is likely to leave the Mumbai port tomorrow for New York. This shipment has two varieties, Alphonso and Kesar. We have got a telephonic message from the US regarding regulatory clearance," said KS Money, chairman of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda).

Another cause for cheer is that India scores over Pakistan in supplying mangoes to the US as the neighbours were trying to gain access to the US mango market for sometime now. However, Pakistan has not been able to export any mangoes so far.

The US banned mangoes from India 18 years ago over concerns that Indian farmers used too much of pesticides, including the banned ones.

The lifting of the ban on mango export to the US was among the major successes of the trade policy forum that was announced 18 months ago by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush.

Apeda has set up an irradiation facility at Lasalgaon (Maharashtra) in association with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, for disinfecting and improving the shelf life of mangoes for export to US.

In return, for allowing mango exports to the US, the Indian government on April 13 relaxed emission and testing norms for the import of Harley Davidson bikes.

The size of US mango market is about 250,000 tonnes. At present, the Mexican varieties dominate the US market.

Commercially, there would be no immediate gains from mango exports to the US but in the long run it would grow into a big market, said Money, adding that Apeda is also planning to organise a Mango Festival in the US sometime in May-June this year.

Major export markets for Indian mangoes are Bangladesh, West Asia, South-East Asia, Britain and other European countries.

During the year 2004-05, Indian mango exports was at 52,000 tonnes, which went up to 58,000 tonnes in 2005-06. India is the largest producer of mango in the world, with an estimated annual production of 12 million tonnes against the total world production of 24 million tonnes.

The mango season in India is mainly from February to August, while the major mango producing states are Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Bihar.