October 6, 2011
Apple founder Steve Jobs passed away on October 5th, 2011 after contributing infinite joy to the world. We are saddened at his demise and wish peace to the enlightened soul. As a mark of respect to Steve Jobs, all operations of Mangozz.com will remain closed for a day. They will reopen for business on October 7th. Incidently, we had the honor of shipping mangoes to Steve Jobs during our brief history. We will forever cherish that privilege.
Jaidev, mangozz.com
Link: http://www.mangozz.com
The following article appeared in Hindustan Times on August 18, 2011. Although the article looks at mangoes from a different angle, it talks about mangoes from India and Pakistan and mentions mangozz.com.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Pakistan-s-mangoes-challenge-India-in-US/Article1-734815.aspx
Pakistan's mangoes challenge India in US
Yashwant Raj, Hindustan Times
Washington, August 18, 2011
Three years after India's vaunted mangoes hit US shores, Pakistan is catching up. The first commercial shipment of its prized chausas arrived in Chicago last weekend and is now ready for retailing, setting up yet another rivalry. It will be retailing at a princely $80-100 for a box of 12, a price market experts believe is determined more by the emotional pull of the fruit than anything: am proud to be a Pakistani, and am just so glad chausas are finally here.
Indian mangoes - led by Alphonsos - started arriving here in 2007 in a deal widely touted as Mangoes-for-Harley Davidsons. The number of Harleys selling in India is still quite low, as are the Alphonsos here.
The first shipment - a sort of trailer - of Pakistani chausas landed two weekends ago to a blustery welcome from the Pakistanis here, led by their embassy. The reception ceremony in Chicago was a packed affair.
Over 95% of the US mango market is dominated by Mexican varieties. They are sweet and fleshy but lack the "complex flavours" of Indian mangoes, according to Jaidev Sharma of mangozz.com, the number one mango retailer here.
Sharma has been flooded with orders for Pakistani chausas, for now. Speaking for himself, he said, "I can't wait to open the boxes of mangoes lying in the storage area." They are too green now, and he checks on them as often as he can.
Are they better than the Indian mangoes? The jury is out so far, struggling with their patriotism.
A large number of the orders placed online on Sharma's website is from Indians who can't their favourites from India as the mango season there is technically over. For them, the Pakistani chausa will serve.
It's been a long and arduous journey for these chausas before they finally landed here. Two years of "strategic talks" went into it, said Pakistani ambassador Hasnain Haqqani at the Chicago gala marking the arrival of his favourite, and of the rest of his countrymen and women, mango, chausas.
Grown in orchards in Multan, Punjab, these chausas land in Chicago under a strictly controlled trade arrangement between the governments of the two countries and are immediately sent to an Iowa facility for irradiation.
For Indian mangoes, this process happens in India itself, at a facility in Nasik, where a US inspector - but funded by Indian government - check every shipment for compliance to US standards, before it ships.
Pakistan was unable to wangle the same deal because of deteriorating relations with the US. No American wants to be stationed in Pakistan given the severity of travel advisories repeatedly issued by the US state department.
That was bureaucratic tangle the two countries sort, especially as relations nosedived following the discovery of Osama bin Laden hiding in plain sight in Abbottabad, a town crawling with Pakistani military past and present.
Some in the Congress demanded - a demand easily conceded by an equally exasperated White House - all aid to Pakistan be linked to its adherence to US guidelines on the war against terror in Pakistan and in Afghanistan.
Some Congress members, mostly those considered sympathetic to the Pakistani cause - a speedily dwindling number - were sent boxes from the first shipment, hastily ripened by every means possible.
That's sweet, but sweet enough?
Link: http://www.mangozz.com
The following article appeared in Times of India on August 21, 2011. It talks about Indian and Pakistani mangoes and mentions mangozz.com.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-21/us-canada-news/29911588_1_indian-mangoes-mango-varieties-mango-season
PTI Aug 21, 2011, 05.19pm IST
Tags:
WASHINGTON: Three years after the Indian " alphanso" landed in the US to the delight of diehard mango lovers, the popular " chausa" variety from Pakistan has entered American markets this month, leading to cheers from the fruit's fans.
Traders involved in its import concede that this brings an element of competition between the mango varieties from two countries, though both are facing the problem of high costs and are presently quite far away from the reach of the masses and are not readily available in Indian and Pakistani grocery stores.
Jaidev Sharma, president of Mangozz.com, one of the largest importers of the fruit from India and Pakistan, says that generally mangoes from India have an edge over those from Pakistan.
After the arrival of the first commercial shipment of about 800 boxes of Pakistani "chausa" early this month, a box of six "chausa" mangoes was quickly taken at an unbelievable premium price of USD 60-USD 100.
In the last few years, the Indian "alphanso" has been the costliest variety in the US, with a box (weighing about 3 kgs and containing nine to 12 mangoes) being sold this year at USD 40 to USD 80 in the retail market.
Mango importers from Pakistan hope that as the volume of import of "chausa" increases in the coming years, they would be able to give a stiff challenge to the mangoes from India.
"We hope to give a tough competition to the Indian mangoes," said a Pakistani-origin shopkeeper in the Greater Washington Area, who was one of the lucky few to sell from the first commercial consignment.
All eyes are now set on the second commercial consignment of the variety from Pakistan, scheduled to arrive at the Chicago airport - the port of entry for mangoes - on Thursday, which will be taken to the radiation facility in Illinois a day later.
The consignment is being eagerly awaited by traders here as the import of Indian mangoes this season has ended, giving a field day to "chausa" for carving its place among those who relish the fruit.
American importers of mango from India were left disappointed when the inspector from US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), who processes mangoes at the facility near Nasik and issues certification for their export, left India in the third week of June, even before the peak of the mango season in the northern and eastern parts of the country.
September 6, 2011
In 2011, the mango import from Pakistan was allowed for the first time in many years. The process required processing the mango at a facility in Iowa before it was approved for commercial distribution. mangozz.com teamed up with other importers to make this happen. On August 15th, the first commercial shipment to the US from Pakistan was shipped to the customers of mangozz.com. Our hope was that we could encourage import of the mango by working with other like-minded people- we shared our expertise freely with other importers.
It now seems that it is again upto us to take this to the next level. For starters, we had requested Sadex to allow us to bring in our independent shipments and have them processed on 9/16 and possibly 9/23 or 9/30. Sadex has approved both these dates, provided we fulfill some conditions. We are working on those at present. Since now we don't have to depend on others, we are quite confident that more mango from Multan in Pakistan will be available to our customers before the 2011 mango season is over.
Presently, white Chausa is available in Pakistan for another 3 more weeks. That should be just enough to get our shipments. We are trying to streamline the operations and hope to have distribution in place for next year when we can import more varieties of mango from Pakistan.
So stay tuned. All pending shipments of Chausa mango will be shipped to mangozz.com customers on 9/16/2011. So feel free to place your orders. We have also learnt a lot of things about the Chausa mango from our last shipment. We will be using the data to improve the quality of the fruit in our next shipment.
Jaidev, mangozz.com
July 11, 2011
The ZZ Group is working frantically to bring mango from Pakistan to the US this year. The logistics and processing of the fruit in US after import is complex, but we are very hopeful that we will prevail. We had hoped to get our first shipment during the week of July 11th- if we had been successful, we might have got some Langra, Dussehri. and possibly some Sindhri.
Now we are targeting the week of July 18th (even that might get delayed by a week or two). For the target date, we will have access to Chausa and subsequently white Chausa from Pakistan. We will update our customers once we get close to our target date.
Jaidev, mangozz.com
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