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World’s most expensive mango ‘Miyazaki’ priced at around Rs275,000 per kg (around Dh12,000 per kg) in the international market is now showcased in a three-day-long Mango Festival in India.
Farmers in the state of West Bengal grow the expensive variety, named after a city in Japan. Although the variety was first developed in California, it boomed after it was brought to Miyazaki in Japan in the 1980s.
These mangoes, also known as ‘egg of the sun’ in Japan, and ‘red sun’ in India, have a distinct purple colour as they bud, and turn a brilliant bright red when they ripen. The original Miyazaki plants in Japan are harvested carefully. Each individual fruit is given exclusive care and allowed to fall naturally instead of being plucked off the branch. The fruit itself is said to be smooth and sweet, with hardly any fibrous material.
The fruit came to West Bengal when a local first planted a seed near a mosque. The mosque then auctioned the fruit and used the proceeds for development of its facilities. It is now grown in other farms around the region.
Shoukat Hussein, a Miyazaki farmer, said that he was participating in the festival for the first time. He added that he got the drafting saplings from Bangladesh and planted them in his garden in Birbhum.
“[I have] received [a] positive response with the huge production. It can be grown in any part of the state and change the economic condition of the farmers,” he added.
Raj Basu, Convenor, ACT and co-partner of the Mango festival said that they have displayed more than 262 varieties of mangoes, of them Miyazaki was the major attraction of the festival.
“People are flocking around the mango and we received huge queries. They want to promote tourism through the festival. The association has appealed to UNESCO to declare Sompur Paharpur Mahavihara in Bangladesh-Darjeeling Himalayan Railway(DHR) corridor as the mango heritage corridor or Intunjable Cultural Heritage soon”, Basu added.
(With inputs from ANI)
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