Australia will soon be importing various varieties of mangoes from India for the first time.
A number of Indian businesses are working hard to export the king of fruit out of India to Australia for this Northern mango season ranges from March to July.
The Southern or Australian mango season ranges from October to February and therefore there will be no competition between locally produced mangoes to that imported from India.
Moreover Australia produces a very limited variety of this fruit while India has a diverse variety of this fruit with different shapes, looks and taste.
Revised protocols have opened the door for Indian imports, with fruit allowed into Australia as long as it has been irradiated prior to export out of India Australia has been importing limited amount of mangoes from Mexico, the Philippines and Pakistan over the years.
India currently exports 200 to 300 tonne of mangoes to the US a year of a large number of varieties of mangoes.
A new variety of mango has been lately been developed by a Padamshri award winning mango developer Haji Kalimullah, 74 in Uttar Pradesh, UP this mango season. He has named the new slender beautiful mango as “Yogi mango” after the newly appointed chief minister of UP, Yogi Adityanath.
India, a tropical paradise for fruits, is home to more than 50 varieties of mangoes cultivated in different states across the country. Here’s a roundup of some popular top varieties and where you can find them: Summer is here! and with it comes the refreshing, delicious season of mangoes.
The emperor Sher Shah Suri introduced this variety of mango to the Northern lands of India from Pakistan during his reign in the 1500s. The name came about when he was celebrating his victory over Humayun in Chausa (Chausa) in present-day Bihar. Cultivated in north India, this sweet, juicy variety is available during July and August. It is characterised by a uniformly yellow-golden colour. It is used to make mango juice pulp.
A variety also called Malihabadi, for the town in Lucknow where it is mainly produced, the Dasheri (Dasehri) mango variety was first cultivated in the garden of a Nawab in Lucknow about 200 years back. Sweet with a strong aroma, it is fibreless, and has a long, perfect shape. It is bright yellow in colour, and is used for making chutney and aamrus. Langra
Banarasi Langra is a famous mango variety cultivated in Varanasi. According to a legend, it was first cultivated in the farmlands of a ‘lame’ man, which is why the name langra. Oval-shaped, it is green in colour even when it is ripe. Available from July to August, it is a fibrous variety that is exported across the country and the world.
Aamras! That’s the one thing this variety of mango is famous for. Also consumed raw, Safeda-Lakhnavva is found in the malihabad areas in good quantity. Cultivated for consumption between June - August, it gets its name owing to its bright orange colour with whiteness. It is very juicy and one can drink it by just pulling its cap. It was given the name in 1934.
(Note: The author acknowledges the contribution of Mr Khurram Kazmi of Lucknow for the information on Indian varieties of mangoes).
Zia Ahmad is the Managing Editor of the Australasian Muslim Times AMUST and a Trustee of Islamic Foundation for Education and Welfare (IFEW) as well as Australian MEFF Consortium (organisers of MEFF-Multicultural Eid Festival and Fair). He received the Premier’s Multicultural Media Awards 2016 in the category of Best Editorial / Commentary of the Year. He is an Ambassador of Peace appointed by the Universal Peace Federation.
Zia is professionally a Biochemist, BAppSc (Biomedical Science), MAppSc (UTS). Zia has actively served School of Molecular Bioscience at University of Sydney for more than 40 years before his retirement in mid 2013.