By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: When our Houston Indian Consul General D.C. Manjunath got a whiff of the national tour of Indian mangoes to four American cities – Seattle, Atlanta, Washington and New York – and found that Houston was not included, he sprang into action and implored the tour leader Dr. C.B. Singh to make a pitstop in Houston too, telling him about the very active and huge Indian community here.
He persuaded Dr. Singh, the Deputy General Manager of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, a unit of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry (APEDA) to stop at the Bayou City for two days and hastily pulled together two functions: a meeting with community leaders and other Consul Generals of other countries on Thursday at the Indian Consulate and a mango tasting event at Keemat Grocers on Hillcroft.
Both events showed the draw of the fame of the Indian mangoes, especially at the Keemat Grocers event where about 40 customers lined up and eagerly picked the peeled and sliced samples. Between the Langra, Chausa and Kesar mangoes served, the Kesar with its powerful aroma and appeal to the tastebuds was the clear winner. Many customers were visibly upset that they could not buy boxes of these mangoes, Singh told them there were not enough to go around.
Singh was delighted by the response to his initial tour of the US. “In Seattle, we held the tasting in Costco to hundreds of shoppers and in Washington, DC, the event was at Dupont Circle where thousands of people clamored for samples,” he explained. “I had no idea that Houston was such a vital and large market for us, but thanks to Consul General Manjunath, I am better informed.”
Singh returned to India last Sunday but he is already thinking of making another American visit next year to build on the success of the initial tour and hopes to get Indian mangoes into the US market soon.
