First mango shipment to US by June

Fruit will be treated in Iowa and then sent to markets.

KARACHI:

Pakistan has succeeded in mango diplomacy with the United States and its first shipment of mangoes will arrive in the US in May or June this year.

The shipment will be sent by air and will first go to an irradiation treatment centre in Iowa. After treatment, the fruit will be shipped to cities with a large Pakistani-American population, according to a press release issued on Friday.

Later, the US would like to coordinate sea shipments of mangoes because these allow much larger exports than air shipments, said Ahmed Jawad, CEO of Harvest Tradings, the firm which will be exporting the mangoes. Sea shipments also cost less, which will help reduce the price a customer pays for mangoes, he added.

The US has partnered with Chemonics – a development consulting company based in Washington – and allocated nearly $90 million to the project, which runs from May 2009 to May 2013. A test shipment to the US last year proved that Pakistani mangoes have great potential there.

USAID is also involved in the project and has supported a mango processing facility which will help increase the fruit’s shelf life for better survival during sea transfers and market displays.

United States is the largest importer of mangoes, importing five times the entire Pakistani produce every year. Pakistan is the third-largest producer of mangoes in the world, growing more than 1.5 million tons annually.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2011.