Indian Mango Season Means a Cutthroat Selling FrenzyThere are few periods I look forward to more than mango season. Growing up, I spent many summer afternoons accompanying my father to the Indian grocery store as he selected mangoes, sniffing and palming them to make sure they weren’t too ripe. Those mangoes were wonderful: fragrant, sweet and creamy. But they were from Mexico. The best mangoes, my father insisted, were from India. And I got to try those varieties — brightly hued Kesars and buttery Langras — only when we visited family in Delhi. But I recently discovered that you can now buy Indian mangoes in America that weren’t smuggled through customs. In 2007, President George W. Bush lifted a ban on importing Indian mangoes, which resulted in a cottage industry of Indian American importers catering to the diaspora. Now, nowhere is that industry more robust than in New Jersey, which has one of the biggest Indian populations in the United States. Thanks to higher visibility on social media, Indian mangoes have never been in greater demand. A manager at Patel Brothers, a popular Indian grocery chain, told me the stores sell 10 times as many Indian mangoes as they did five years ago. Several customers I spoke to said they had spent as much as $75 on a box, as they’re so eager for a taste of their childhood.
Last year, I began asking friends who bought Indian mangoes to put me in touch with their sellers, and I slowly built a network of importers in New Jersey, learning who the key players were, who used to partner with whom and who was seen as the biggest competition. I learned that the business in New Jersey is not just about the rivalry. It’s also ruthless. I spoke to and followed around importers as they received and delivered batches of mangoes throughout New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Most of them have day jobs as store owners or I.T. specialists, and were surprisingly candid about the industry. They told me about which of their rivals were lying about the origins of their mangoes or were trying to undercut them on price. This is a brutal business, and the returns aren’t even that great. Mangoes spoil quickly, the margins are thin and customers are demanding. On several occasions, I intended to spend the day with one of the importers as it received mangoes, only to have a canceled flight foil our plans or a batch spoil in transit because an airport employee forgot to refrigerate the fruit. For all of these challenges, each of the importers provided the same reason to keep at it: They really love Indian mangoes. And I’m especially thankful for them. Every time I met an importer in reporting this story, I ended up buying several boxes of mangoes that I took home for my family. We finished the last of them this week. Watching my husband stand over the sink sucking the last bits of fruit off the seed gave me flashbacks to my childhood.
Invite your friends.
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