The Pakistani mango’s odyssey!

It is well nigh two decades of effort, but Pakistani mango has not yet managed to reach the shores of Japan. A news report, datelined Karachi, quotes the chairman of the Pakistan Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Importers and Merchants Association (PFVA) as having stated that, “We could not export the fruit to Japan this year too in the absence of the required VHT plant”.

As a nation we may be forgiven for being overly fond of our mangoes. The Pakistani mango, we believe, is nature’s gift to mankind. It hurt our collective ego, therefore, to find that there are nations that are deprived of the pleasure of enjoying this delectable fruit. Thus, we enthusiastically jump at any opportunity to rectify this unforgivable lapse.

The perspicacious reader may well look askance at this new-found interest in this particular item of commerce. The fact is that any mention of mangoes in relation to Japan brings back a flood of memories, not all of them pleasant ones. One would crave the indulgence of the gentle reader to relate a short ‘diplomatic episode’ of some relevance to what may be termed as Pakistan-Japan mango diplomacy that commenced around the mid-1990s.

It came to pass that the prime minister at that time, while embarking on a tour of Japan, thought it fit to use her discretion to include in her entourage a few gentlemen farmers from the ‘mango-growing belt’ of the country. It may be added, within parentheses, that no research of any genre appeared to have gone into this somewhat impulsive decision. In particular, the Foreign Offices of the two countries were not brought into the loop, so to say.

Fast-forward to Tokyo where, in the course of her bilateral discussions with her Japanese counterpart, the prime minister casually let drop her earnest desire to conclude on the spot an agreement on export of Pakistani mangoes to Japan. She added, helpfully, that in anticipation of this momentous accord she had actually included in her entourage a group of Pakistan’s leading exporters of this fruit.

Our Japanese hosts were caught totally off-guard. It would be nearer the truth to aver that they were veritably stunned. As members of a very hardy and methodical race, Japanese believe in preparing their briefs in a very thorough, pain-staking manner. The mango salvo by our side was something they had not anticipated at all. The Japanese are not known for giving vent to their sentiments in public, but if looks could kill, the Japanese foreign office mandarins at the negotiating table would have been hard put to come through unscathed that fateful morning.

The situation was salvaged — albeit partially — thanks to a subsequent officials’ level meeting during which among other things the Pakistani side learnt a few home truths about the pesky ‘fruit fly’. Japan, it appeared, had embarked upon a campaign to eliminate the fruit fly in earnest some years earlier. The import of fruit to which that pesky insect was partial came in for special attention.

It took them some two decades of stringent measures, but the Japanese did manage to rid their country of the dreaded insect. Japan had, our side was pointedly informed, invented a machine, (otherwise known as a VHT plant) that helps to eliminate the fruit fly, without damaging the fruit. Japan’s trading partners in fruit had been using the process successfully for years. Now, it was our turn.

As one recalls, the Japanese even offered the services of experts to acquaint us with the procedure. The minutes of the meeting were duly recorded and on return to Pakistan sent to the offices concerned “for necessary action”. From all accounts, it appears evident that the document in question went the way of all such documents — coming to rest in some dusty corner of the official archives to provide sustenance to a favoured nest of office termites.

There the matter appears to have rested over the past several years, despite inspired stories from year to year about the efforts of the authorities concerned to make a ‘breakthrough’ in the export of mangoes to the Japanese market. Keeping in view the chequered history of the odyssey Japan-ward of the Pakistani mango, one is inclined to take the news report under reference with a generous pinch of salt. But, going by our past record, one never knows!

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2015.

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