news views and analysis

Image Copyrights: Steve Legato for The New York Times

The wait for Indian mangoes here in the US is over, and as per this press release from te USDA, the import has begun

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2007-U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns on Tuesday welcomed the first shipments of irradiated Indian mangoes arriving through U.S. ports-of-entry, initiating mango trade with the United States.

Indian mangoes are the first fruit irradiated at an overseas site and approved for importation into the United States. Irradiation became an approved treatment on all pests for fruits and vegetables entering the United States in 2002. Last year, a generic dose was recognized for a wider range of commodities, including Indian mangoes. The use of irradiation provides an alternative to other pest control methods, such as fumigation, cold and heat treatments. [ link ]

The NYTimes writes

The first legal shipment of Indian mangoes to the United States (US) in decades landed at New York’s Kennedy International Airport on 27 April, probably the most eagerly anticipated fruit delivery ever. �??If we can get them at good ripeness,” said Suvir Saran, executive chef of the Indian restaurant Devi in Manhattan, “people will go mad for the beautiful, supple flesh and intense flavour.” Some Indian-Americans have spent hundreds of dollars at an auction in Miami for rare Florida-grown Indian mango varieties; flown home specially for the season; or tried to smuggle illicit fruit past airport inspectors, striving to recapture rapturous memories of their homeland’s luscious, incomparable mangoes. Until now, though, most could only crave and dream.

Now, if only I could find a way to get my hands on some !!!