Mango wars: India or Pakistan, whose are best?

“Pakistani mangoes are best, due to their unique taste, pulpy & juicy body, with the blend of love & sweetness that goes into growing them,” said Zee Shan, even as Muhammad Khurram added, “Pakistani mangoes are the best, there is no match to the other mangoes of the world.”

But Syed Ahmed, an Indian, countered with, “Alphonso mangoes are the most delicious and they are one of my favourites. It originated in India."

Ramanuj Venkatesh, assistant accounts manager at Larsen and Toubro, though, was quick to see the positives this brought for expats in Oman.
 

“Pakistan’s expat population of 220,000 is a quite a huge number out of the entire expatriate population of two million,” he said “When a mango has been picked up by the average Pakistani consumer, he feels more at home as the very sweet fragrance and the delectable taste justifies its market price.

“This bodes well to the Pakistani economy as the foreign exchange earned from this lucrative export amounts to 75 million dollars on average,” he added.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation, India is the world’s largest producer of mangoes, growing about 18 million tonnes of the fruit per annum, with Pakistan producing just under a 10th of that, or 1.7 million tonnes.

Oman ranks among the top 10 importers of Indian mangoes, having brought in nearly a thousand tonnes of the fruit from India in 2016-17, which is worth about half a million Rials.

In addition, Oman has consistently ranked among Pakistan’s top mango importers, bringing in about six tonnes of the fruit, at a cost of 1.3 million Rials in 2015, the last year for which statistics are available.