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UNITED NEWS OF INDIA
New Delhi, July 9: Display of as many as 317 varieties of mangoes from a single tree is the main feature of the eleventh mango festival which opened here today.
The stall which boasts of the single tree varieties has been put up by Kalimulla from Malihabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Kalimulla is one of the four major mango growers participating in the three-day annual festival at the sprawling Talkatora stadium here.
The festival, declared open by Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, has brought to the capital at least 570 varieties of the king of fruits.
Organised by the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation, the festival has participation from agricultural ministry's horticultural department and commerce ministry's agricultural and processed food products export development authority (Apeda).
Apeda has earmarked a separate enclosure for mangoes from foreign countries hike the United Kingdom, Ivory Coast and Mexico.
Joginder Singh of Apeda told reporters that India would soon exportmangoes to Japan after meeting that country's requirement of vapour heat treated fruits. This processing facility was being tested at the Pusa Agricultural Institute here.
Besides sale of fresh mangoes, mango saplings and mango- based produces, the festival features mango eating and quiz competitions and o-man-go fun games.
The mango eating competition for women would take place at 1600 hrs tomorrow and for men at the same time on Sunday.
The other mango growers taking part in the event are from Saharanpur, Lucknow and Rataul.
Kalimulla says besides the 317-variety tree, which is 80 years' old, he has another such tree which yields 55 varieties. Following a request, he would bring the six-year-old tree to the capital and plant it at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The varieties would subsequently be increased to 100 through grafting.
VK Jain, a mango grower and exporter from Saharanpur, said Pakistan had an edge over India in mango exports to the Gulf countries due to lower freight rates and less transittime.
India's export of mangoes has gone up to 42,894 tonnes (Rs 73 crore) in 1997-98, from 22,269 tonnes (Rs 38.51 crore) in 1995-96.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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