Written by: Haroon Shuaib
Posted on: June 12, 2020 | 
| 中文
Mango Trees in Mirpurkhas, Sindh
Mirza Ghalib, the greatest of all Urdu poets, was extremely fond of mangoes, described by most as the king of fruits. Once Ghalib was discussing mangoes with his peers and was reported to have said, “Aamon mein buss dou khubiyan honi chahiyen, ek meethe hon aur doosray bohut saare hon.” (Mangoes need to have two qualities; they need to be sweet and they need to be plenty.)
As the mercury rises in Pakistan, one of the things that everyone looks forward to is delicious mangoes. Mangoes are mainly grown in the Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur districts of Southern Punjab, and Mirpur Khas, Nawabshah, Thatta and Badin districts of Sindh. According to experts, there are over 1500 varieties of mangoes in the world, almost 300 of the finest are cultivated in Pakistan.
A Seasonal Worker Bringing Mangoes for Packaging
The types of mangoes that are most popular in Pakistan are Sindhri, Langra, Dasheri, Anwar Ratol, Saroli, Samar Bahisht, Totapari, Neelum, Almas, Alfanso, Sanwal, Sunera, and Fajri. But perhaps no other variety is prized as much as Chaunsa, which is the most popular mango in Pakistan.
Each variety has its distinct shape, colour, size, taste, fiber content, and aroma. Chaunsa is mainly grown in Rahim Yar Khan and Multan districts. It is exceptionally sweet with a wonderful fragrance, delicious soft succulent flesh, and it has only the minimum of fiber. It is usually pale and unassuming in appearance, but once you dig inside the thin peel, its sweet nectar is unforgettable.
Sindhri, the first to arrive in the market every season, is the leading variety of mango from Sindh. Oval in shape, its large size, and lemon-yellow colour is the perfect start of the mango season. My personal favorite is Langra, which stays green from outside even when ripe, and has a soft, sugary but fiber-less flesh. The size of the seed is small, and it is easy to cut the fruit into perfect cubes without much fuss.
Workers DeSapping Mangoes
With a high nutritional value, a serving size equivalent to 3/4 cup of sliced mangoes has only 70 calories, but can provide 50% of your daily vitamin C, 8% of your daily Vitamin A, and 8% of your daily vitamin B6 requirement. The fruit is fat-free, sodium-free, and cholesterol-free, with over 20 different vitamins and minerals such as magnesium, folate, and copper.
Mango starts arriving from mid-May to the fruit vendors across the country, and is available till September. "A generous serving of chilled mangoes is the best offering for your guests. You can cut them in cubes, slices, or just suck on the pulp of a softened fruit. In fact, that is my favorite style of devouring a mango on a summer afternoon,” shares Imtiaz, a lawyer in Islamabad, while bargaining with a fruit hawker near the local district courts.
Vendors Selling Mangoes
According to Muzaffar Hayat Khakwani, a progressive farmer from Multan, Pakistan produces around 1.5 to 1.7 million tons of mango fruit every year. Muzaffar, a former banker who returned from the UK in 1992, inherited a mango orchard spread over 75 acres, after his father’s demise in 1992. Since then he has taken up mango farming with a passion, and improved the quality of trees in his orchard through grafting. He also introduced international standard practices for pre-and post-harvest handling of the fruit to target export markets. His mangoes go to the UK and Malaysia.
Other export destinations for Pakistani mangoes include the Middle East, Europe, Canada, and Australia. Some fruit is also exported to China, due to high demand there. In terms of quantity, India is the largest producer of mangoes followed by China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Pakistan.
Packaging Mangoes
Mango trees, which can grow to be 100 or even 150 years old, require careful pruning for optimal fruiting. The height of the trees should not be more than 20 to 22 feet. While earlier farmers believed that there could only be 25 to 28 trees per acre, through proper plant care techniques, pruning, and research on high-density orchards, the number can increase to about 70 trees per acre.
Pakistan has a huge untapped potential for reaping better rewards through exporting this prized crop. What is needed is better plant care, adherence to phytosanitary and postharvest handling protocols, and market linkages. “Better handling of the fruit, and treatments such as hot water dipping can increase the shelf life of the fruit, and it will make sea freight possible for distant destinations in commercial quantities. Currently, only eight percent of the country’s mangoes are exported,” says Muzaffar.
Mangoes Getting Cleaned Before Packaging
According to some studies, mango pulp is a value-added product, that can exponentially grow in economic terms. If the wasted or inferior quality fruit is converted into pulp, it would create an exportable surplus of USD 500 million. Other value-added products that could be explored are mango seed extracts which are used by the beauty industry, and mango leather or dried mango chips, which are quite popular in international markets.
As Mango season gets into full-swing, Pakistanis are eagerly waiting for a new batch of juicy, sticky, and delicious mangoes that are the delight of our summers. And it is only a matter of time before everyone falls in love with it as Pakistanis have for centuries. The heavenly taste of this super fruit is inestimable, and can only be measured by how quickly you reach out for your next helping of the delectable fruit.
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