‘Indian mangoes on US menu from 2007’

WASHINGTON, DC: Indian mangoes will sweeten American taste buds, after all. Just that they will have to wait a year more. Union Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday that the US may restart importing Indian mangoes from the 2007 mango season. 

While speaking to DNA at a media conference in Washington, DC, soon after his meeting with US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, Pawar said that the US has “responded positively to our stand on mangoes following President George W Bush’s announcement in March that the US is waiting to eat Indian mangoes.” He added: “If all goes well now, we will have Indian mangoes entering the US in 2007.”

It may be recalled that Indian mangoes were banned in the US as Indian authorities had not conducted a Pest Risk Analysis (PRA), required for Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) clearance. Since President Bush’s visit in March, Pawar said he has been in telephonic conversation with Johanns and other senior leaders of the Agriculture Department to “sort out a few issues like imports of mangoes and wheat.”

The US had banned the import of Indian mangoes after they were found to lack the hygiene were not up to the hygiene standards required by the US  India had requested for a PRA about 19 years ago and US authorities have not completed the process.

While China has allowed import of Indian mangoes, Australia and Japan, which also have stringent SPS requirements were now looking at allowing entry to the king of fruits.