Jazan mango’s sweet success

Saudi Arabia is known worldwide for its oil production and vast deserts, but it also has large tracts of green and fertile land that produces a variety of fruit and vegetables, including mangos.
Unlike the fruit’s long history in India, Pakistan and Brazil, mangos are not indigenous to this country. It was only introduced 30 years ago, but is popular among Saudis.
This year, customers can order Jazan mangos online and get them delivered to their door. These mangos have won second place in the Saudi innovative awards.
Rustum Al-Qubaishi, chief organizing officer and director of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, said that the organization has been promoting the month-long mango festival, now in its ninth year, that kicks off in Jazan next week.
“Jazan is the only region in the Kingdom with orchards producing sweet and delicious mangos,” Al-Qubaishi told Arab News. He said the SCTA is helping small producers to cultivate mangos in the region.
Local farmers started producing mangos in 1982 and now have a wide variety of the fruit, according to agriculture officials in Jazan.
It was a challenging job growing mangos, recalled Mohammed Abu Rasen, a farmer who owns a mango orchard in Aburish near to Jazan. He told Arab News that the Ministry of Agriculture convinced farmers to grow the fruit.
He said the ministry had hired mango cultivation experts from all over the world including India, Pakistan, Egypt, Kenya, Sudan and Australia.
According to the ministry, the region now produces 52 different varieties with an average annual yield of 28,000 tons.
There are 570,000 mango trees in orchards spread over an area of 62,000 acres, said Mohammed Al-Hakmi, a senior official from the ministry in Jazan.
The popular varieties are Al-Ajal, Toumi, Baladi, Al-Zubda and Balmar, although there are yellow Pakistani and Hindi varieties that trace their origin to South Asia. However, Saudis prefer to eat Al-Ajal and Toumi mangos, he said.
A retail fruit and vegetable seller in Jeddah has questioned the price of Jazan mangos. “We sell green mangos transported by air from India at SR9 a kilogram, so why do mangos from Jazan coming by truck cost SR8 a kilogram.”