It’s Indian mango season. The season I look forward to the most. The season that makes me salivate the most. The season I never tire of because I could eat my bodyweight in Indian mangoes and then perhaps your body weight too! They are beloved in my household and we usually buy dozens of boxes at this time of year.
But sadly this year I will miss the mango bartering on the streets of Wembley and Kingsbury. I’ll no longer be watching prices drop every week and seeking out the best ‘mango-walla’ to buy from. I will not be able to buy any mangoes at all, let alone boxfuls, because the EU ban on Indian mangoes has now come into effect.
Indian Mango Sellers (Photo credit Chris Ilsley via Flickr)
Why? Why? Why?
The ban is due to a fruit fly found on some of the imported mangoes that could potentially devastate the UK’s salad crops. There is no evidence of this proposed impact and there have apparently been no incidences with DEFRA (Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) finding pests with any of the thousands of mangoes imported this year. Indeed campaigners proposed a heat treatment recognised in the US which may slow trade down but at least enable trade to continue. Sadly they lost their battle and we have lost our beloved Indian mango time.
Best eaten as they are….
Mango time in our house is simple. We go into the garden, grab a washed mango, peel the skin off and eat the flesh. Mango juice streams down our chins but this is part of our ritual. We get it on our noses and our clothes and with much fond annoyance we reach for the kitchen roll we always forget to bring out dripping juice all over the clean floor.
…But alas some alternatives must be sought
It’s not all bad news because we are still able to buy tins of Indian mango purée and enjoy this (from the tin) or use it in a myriad of different dishes. I wanted the intense mango hit and so decided to give Mango Fruit Leather a try.
Mango Leather
It was incredibly easy. I simply spread it out on a reusable baking sheet and popped it into a 70C oven for about 2 hours. I did a second batch with a different type of mango purée and it didn’t work as well so here are some tips:
- If your purée is too thick add a tiny bit of water a little at a time until it pours vs plops.
- If your purée is too thin mix it with some mashed banana or add some ground flax seeds to make it a bit denser. Or pop it onto a muslin cloth and hang it up for a couple of hours for the water to drain out a little.
- If your purée is a little tart add a little apple sauce or purée to even out the sweetness.
Mango and Cardamom Fruit Leather
One of my favourite sprinkles on a fresh mango is freshly ground cardamom. It smells amazing but also tastes spectacular. So I sprinkled a tiny amount over my fruit leather before popping it in the oven. Red chilli powder also worked well. I would also like to try some shredded coconut or poppy seeds to give it a different texture.
As for the ban on mangoes, I am secretly hoping there will be a booming black market!
What’s your view on bans like this? What impact do you see on the whole supply chain? Is it fair to the farmers growing the crop in the first place? Will they even get paid?
Related articles
- Export ban gives Indians a taste of the best mangos (thetimes.co.uk)
- Bitter times for traders as EU bans Indian mangos (thetimes.co.uk)
- Indian mango ban comes into force (bbc.co.uk)
- No mangoes? No way! (greatbritishchefs.com
I am deeply saddened by the seeming knee-jerk reaction. I understand that it is a devastating pest, and would decimate salad crops, but why couldn’t they have addressed this earlier and sorted as have done the Americans?There has got to be some way to sort this before next year. I never even had the chance to have a taste of this year’s crop (my chap was always out of them). I do like your compromise though. Your fruit leather and tipsd look very compelling. Love the cardamom! Although we can’t quite get mesh in the garden with them :-/
I sincerely hope they sort it because otherwise I think I’m going to be booking my holiday to India! Such a real shame and as you say very knee jerk. I do hope they take some learnings from countries applying heat treatment. My concern is where does this stop? I heard they have also banned aubergines! not too bad because at least I can grow those here!
OMG, aubergines! I think I would be scunnered up here in chilly Scotland. I might have to have you grow extra for me! It’s one of my favourites.
Seedlings are being rained on as we speak! I’ve planted my last mango stone too. One can hope!
Er, messy, not mesh!
My sympathies to you. I love mangoes too. Perhaps, a holiday out of Europe. I can’t imagine a summer without Alphonso mangoes.
Yes indeed but what an expensive way to enjoy mangoes. All those lucky locals in India enjoying the surplus but what of the poor farmers? Have they been paid the same after all their efforts to grow such exceptional stock? It’s a bigger issue that sets a precedent for the whole supply chain
I do wonder if this ban will just mean that there will be mangoes available to those that want them at a very high price. Maybe they will get through boxed up as regular mangoes and sold for lots of cash! I love your fruit leather, it really is something I need to make. The photo is just great!
Thanks Laura. Well they have until Dec 2015 to work it out!! Til then puree it is!
This is devastating news, once you have tasted an Alphonso mango, no other mango will ever do.
There are so many other varieties that will be missed. My favourite us the kesar mango
I hadn’t heard about this. It’s funny how they make such sweeping bans on some stuff yet keep other substances in the food chain. I’m sure it all boils down to what’s better business for somebody somewhere!
Unfortunately I tend to avoid eating mangoes as a few times I think they’ve triggered migraines. Don’t know whether you’ve ever come across that happening to anyone else?!
No way! I’ve never heard of mangoes linked to migraines. Oh dear. I wonder that’s why my mum gets migraines!!
That’s really sad – I love mango. I’d never heard of mango leather and I’ve never seen it before now. A really interesting post.
Thanks Jan. It is sad but the mango leather is awesome. Can’t believe I’ve never thought to try it before
Excuse me while I go and cry in a corner! I wondered why I hadn’t seen any boxes yet. I am obviously not catching the news enough. Another whole year! SOB!!!
Hopefully they sort it out and it’s only til next year. And not forever!!!
I heard that this fight has been going on between EU and Indian mango farming community/ representatives for a few years, and was simply not being taken seriously — there were options proposed for dealing with the fruit fly in question but these were not implemented. So I would guess the ban was imposed as only way to drive home the message, as it was failing to get through. Whether or not the fruit fly in question is a threat or not, I have no idea, but it seems that other countries in the region are able to comply, so it can’t be that impossible…
I’m NOT a fan of missing out on my beloved alphonso mangoes, and gorged on them for the last two weeks before ban came in, as the season had just started.
But it seems that the media is not reporting the fact that EU have been having the debate for a lot longer than few months… (according to the Indian bloke on twitter I was talking to, who seems very well informed about all the relevant bodies etc).
It’s a harsh way to get to the point though for the farmers growing the produce. They aren’t always the ones who need to implement the treatments. I wait with baited breath on a reversal of the position!
Pop on a plane to Dubai Urvashi. No mango ban here.
Lucky you!
We get Mexican mangos here and this makes me want to try making mango fruit leather with cardamom next time I see them in the market. I think it is probably difficult to set agricultural policy — many pests have been moved all over the world by unthinking people: we have abundant garden snails in California because someone decided to bring them over for escargot in another century.
It’s a good point. Repercussions of international trade. Sounds like a paper for an economics/law/psychology/sociology student
I’m also devastated and have been reduced to the vastly inferior Dominican mango – stringy!
My photograph looks good…
Chris I
Yeah I agree. Apparently the Pakistani mangoes have not been banned so I’m hoping to bag some of those but yes the Dominican mango is a poor substitute. The Mexican champagne mango is nice. No strings but not as sweet as my Indian mangoes