New Delhi
27 May 2006
"Mr Prime Minister, the United States is looking forward to eating
Indian mangoes," George W Bush exclaimed at the news conference with Dr Manmohan
Singh on the lawns of Hyderabad House in New Delhi in March but Japanese Premier
Junichiro Koizumi will get to taste the real thing before he does.
Mango, the national fruit of India, will make a foray into Japan later this year. "The first
shipment of [Alphonso] mangoes is expected in July," Ambassaor of Japan to India
Yasukuni Enoki told this newspaper. He said an initial shipment will be made this year.
"Real exports will begin next year," he observed.
He said the Indian mango was safe and also competitive in the world market. "This," Mr
Enoki hastened to add, "is the result of pressure and persuasion from your Union
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath." Tokyo hoped the Alphonso will not only win over the
Japanese palates but also sweeten bilateral ties.
While Japanese scientists have decided to remove the "quarantine" on the Alphonso
and other Indian mango varieties, their counterparts in Washington want to be satisfied
that the produce meets the US standards for export including employing proper
fumigation methods to remove weevils (fruit flies.)
Incidentally, the Japanese nod for the Alphonso is understood to have come after almost
a decade or more of relentless pursuit by Indian agencies including the Agricultural and
Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and the Maharashtra
State Agricultural Marketing Board (MSAMB.)
In contrast, it took close to 32 years of negotiations for the first shipment of Brazilian
mangoes to set sail for the Japanese shores. The Latin American variety of mango
became available in the Japanese supermarkets only last year when, reports suggest,
1.5 tonnes of Tommy mangoes left Brazil for Tokyo on January 19.
India is the biggest producer of mango worldwide, producing over 10 million metric
tonnes every year. Besides grape and bitter gourd, mango too is being exported to
China now. However, India's share of the export market of mangoes has not even
touched the double digit mark, at about seven per cent.
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