After 17 yrs, US set to let Indian mangoes enter supermarkets

The separation of nuclear reactors may take its time but after 17 years of sheer perseverance from India, Washington has decided to open its...

The separation of nuclear reactors may take its time but after 17 years of sheer perseverance from India, Washington has decided to open its markets to Indian mangoes.

This is one of the several announcements likely to sweeten the Bush visit with the US government agreeing to issue a draft notification to this effect back home. If all goes well, Indian mangoes will land in US markets in the next 18 months.

Preventing Indian mangoes from entering US supermarkets was the strict Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) conditions imposed by the US. Pests like pulp weevil and fruit fly are alien to US conditions. And the US was never confident about India’s capability to make the harvest pest-free.

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Doors opened just a crack when a mechanism was set up following the PM’s US visit—the US-India Trade Policy Forum, a group headed by India’s Commerce Minister and US Trade Representative Rob Portman.

Several meetings later, the clincher was irradiation, the method to be now adopted to make mangoes pest-free. Earlier, it was limited to vapour treatment and quarantine.

Officials here said the fact that there was a Cabinet-rank person from US meant that Washington was willing to hear. India, meanwhile, has been upgrading its SPS methods, both in pest monitoring and control. It has identified certain mango-producing areas and works closely with the farmers.

With India not getting access to US markets, the pie was taken by Mexico. While India is the largest producer of mangoes (41% of the world produce), and the US is the largest importer (29% of all imports), there was no convergence between the two. The gainer was Mexico which only produces 5 per cent of the world’s mangoes and has 25 per cent of the mango export market.