DNA TV Show: US rejects 15 mango shipments from India

The mango season has begun, but Indian mangoes have been banned from entering the US. Every year, during the mango season, an average of 22000-23000 metric tons of mangoes are exported from India to the US. This year too, as soon as the mango season started, mango exports to the US began. But the US has cancelled 15 consignments of Indian mangoes.

At three airports in the US — Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta — 15 shipments of mangoes worth Rs 4 crore were ordered to be taken back, declaring them as bad. Now these mangoes will not be brought back to India, but will be destroyed there because bringing them back will cost money again. The surprising thing is that the certificate in which the Indian mangoes have been cancelled based on errors, declaring them bad, was earlier issued by the US agency itself.

All the fruits that are sent to the US have to go through a special process, under which the germs of the fruits are killed. When this work is completed, mangoes or other fruits are given a PPQ203 certificate. This certificate is issued by US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). The Indian mangoes were also issued certificates by the US government agency in Mumbai.

Now, the big question is why the certificate issued by the US agency in India was rejected in America? Was this done intentionally? Was this done intentionally to increase the import of Pakistani mangoes? Is the Trump administration engaged in portraying Indian mangoes as bad under the anti-India narrative?

India is number one in the world in terms of mango production. About 52 per cent of the world’s mangoes are produced in India. That is, India alone produces more mangoes than the total mango production in the whole world. On average, India produces 2.62 crore tons of mango every year, whereas Indonesia produces 41 lakh tons, China 39 lakh tons, Mexico 27 lakh tons, and Pakistan produces only 26 lakh tons. This means that India produces 10 times more mangoes than Pakistan.

Mangoes are imported to the US from many countries. Apart from India, Pakistan also sends mangoes to the US. In 2022-23, India exported about 23,000 metric tonnes of mangoes to the US, worth around Rs 412 crore. In 2022-23, Pakistan exported 813 metric tonnes of mangoes to the US, worth around Rs 12 crore.