After 17 yrs, US set to let Indian mangoes enter supermarkets

Breakthrough India (largest producer) upgrades pest tech to meet US (largest importer) hygiene terms

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 27: The separation of nuclear reactors may take its time but after 17 years of sheer perseverance from India, Washington has decided to open its markets to Indian mangoes.

This is one of the several announcements likely to sweeten the Bush visit with the US government agreeing to issue a draft notification to this effect back home. If all goes well, Indian mangoes will land in US markets in the next 18 months.

Preventing Indian mangoes from entering US supermarkets was the strict Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) conditions imposed by the US. Pests like pulp weevil and fruit fly are alien to US conditions. And the US was never confident about India’s capability to make the harvest pest-free.

Doors opened just a crack when a mechanism was set up following the PM’s US visit—the US-India Trade Policy Forum, a group headed by India’s Commerce Minister and US Trade Representative Rob Portman.

Several meetings later, the clincher was irradiation, the method to be now adopted to make mangoes pest-free. Earlier, it was limited to vapour treatment and quarantine.

Officials here said the fact that there was a Cabinet-rank person from US meant that Washington was willing to hear. India, meanwhile, has been upgrading its SPS methods, both in pest monitoring and control. It has identified certain mango-producing areas and works closely with the farmers.

With India not getting access to US markets, the pie was taken by Mexico. While India is the largest producer of mangoes (41% of the world produce), and the US is the largest importer (29% of all imports), there was no convergence between the two. The gainer was Mexico which only produces 5 per cent of the world’s mangoes and has 25 per cent of the mango export market.

http://www.indianservice.com/mangoes/alphonso.htm

DEVGADH ALPHONSO MANGOES

India is popularly known, to produce the finest quality of the Alphonso mangoes, throughout the world.
Mangoes are of different varieties and are named accordingly. The best variety - The Alphonso - comes from a sleepy little village named Devgadh, situated within the Konkan belt of the western India and which is known to produce the finest quality of the Alphonso variety. After having eaten these mangoes one can say that Gods have really blessed India with this special fruit.

Devgadh mangoes are specially grown in orchards spread on thousands of acres of lands. Devgadh is blessed with soil that is very fertile and rich in minerals and with the sun and humidity that imparts a very unique aroma and flavor to its mangoes. The climate is favorable for the growth of mangoes.

Mango saplings are planted in a way to maintain a particular height of each sapling. These is commonly known as "kalams". Good quality fertilizers are used while no artificial chemicals, germicides and pesticides are sprayed. Gradually when the saplings becomes trees, each of which yield about 300 to 400 mangoes at a time. The enriched soils makes the mangoes grow bigger in size and are much more sweeter. Thus nature itself helps in getting the best quality fruits. The mangoes are then hand picked when raw and are kept in the baskets in between the layers of hay so that they ripe naturally without use of any chemicals.

These mangoes being the best in quality, size and sweetness are exported to many countries and thus have become famous not only in India but also in other parts of the world.

I didn't bother to read the article, but "www.indianmangos.com" is stored in my favorites. At roughly $17.95 (800 rupees) a month, it's not cheap, but there's just a dearth of sites on the net where one can enjoy two chicks sharing love while rubbing eachother with garam marsala.

Word to the wise, that "Free Tour" comes with dozens of time delay pop-ups, so consider turning off your monitor when you leave, lest the COO stop by your desk after hours to drop off some expenses and have his Christian sensibilities shocked to his core.

Owl_Eagle

(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,

it was probably sarcasm)

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