Despite a recent souring of U.S.-Pakistan relations, a new trade development promises to sweeten things up.
It’s the debut of Pakistani mangoes, the first shipment of which touched down at O’Hare on Thursday night. After a quick trip to Iowa for electron beam irradiation (for food safety), the fragrant chaunsa mangoes returned for their coming out party at the Palmer House Hilton Saturday afternoon.
Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Hussain Haqqani presided over the mango party, which he said was the culmination of “two years of strategic dialogue” with the late ambassador Richard Holbrooke and others officials about ways they could improve relations “relatively easily.”
Although the mangoes won’t be in stores for a few weeks and there’s no definite price yet, the ambassador said that he has already sent boxes to Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Mark Kirk, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He further said a box should be arriving at the White House on Monday.
Party guests from Chicago’s Pakistani-American community and beyond also got an early taste. Clad in tailored suits and elegant shalwar kameezes they strolled through the hotel’s Grand Ballroom sampling chilled mango chunks, mango ice cream, mango tarts, mango chutney, mango tortes, mango custard, mango pudding, mango pies and non-alcoholic mango margaritas and sangria. After a battery of impassioned mango speeches—from pols including Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle—the last mango masterpiece was revealed: a green and white fondant covered four story mango cake announcing the inauguration of the famous fruit.
“We have been waiting for this for the past 20 years for Pakistani mangoes to come here,” said Samina Khattak of Chicago. “We have been eating the Mexican and Indian mangoes but they are not the same.”
Indeed the mango mania surrounding the arrival of the Pakistani fruit mirrors the 2007 hoopla over the American debut of India’s Alphonso mangoes, which connoisseurs—mostly Indians—also called the best mangoes in the world.
Swetal Patel is the vice president of Raja Foods in Skokie and was the original importer of Alphonsos, whose season has just ended and can cost about $3 a piece.
The Indian executive says he will probably carry the chaunsas at his family’s stores for his Pakistani customers but not because he can make a lot of money.
“They cost so much to ship in that the profit margins are very small,” he says. “But we’ll carry them as a service to the community. People want the taste of the mangoes they had growing up. That’s why we carried the Alphonsos, which can be great but then another box can be bad. I think the irradiation causes some issues.”
India (the world’s largest mango producer) and Pakistan harbor rivalries on many subjects and mangoes are no exception.
Although Patel loves Kent mangoes from Mexico and thinks Pakistani mangoes can be good, he also believes that “nothing compares to a good Indian Alphonso.”
Pakistani Member of Parliament Farahnaz Ispahani politely disagrees.
“I have tasted Alphonsos and there is no competition,” said Ispahani who is also the wife of Ambassador Haqqani and the Pakistan Presidential spokesperson. “The soil in Pakistan produces the sweetest mangoes in the world and once Americans taste Pakistani mangoes in all their depth and flavors they’ll never turn back. They’ll forget Alphonsos and any other mangoes.”
While many guests quietly slipped a few mangoes into their purses for later eating, Oak Brook surgeon Murtaza Arain chose not to wait.
“I have been here 42 years and some of these mangoes are very close to those I grow on my farm in Pakistan,” he said rolling a chaunsa in his hands and then biting off the stem so he could drink from the fruit like a juice box.
Because most of the fresh mangoes on offer were not yet ripe, it’s hard to say how they compare to premium mangoes like Alphonsos. But the various dishes in which they were served revealed a sweet, fragrant and nearly fiber free fruit that could appeal to many American palates.
Haqqani said that the chaunsa is one of more than 200 Pakistani mango varieties and he expects more growers with different varieties to meet U.S. import requirements in the near future.
As the biggest importer of mangoes in the world (with $250 million in mango imports) America was a ripe market for the Pakistani mango, Haqqani said.
But the diplomat hopes the arrival of the fruit will mean more than improved economic ties for the two countries with such strained dealings.
“This is something we are very happy about,” he said. “At a time when U.S. Pakistan relations are being reported as tense, this is finally some sweet news.”
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