Among the keya, radhachura and jhau trees of Shyamoli Park in Dhaka stands a mango tree four or five feet tall. A closer look showed it bearing blossom and tiny young fruit. Curious, we took photographs and video and then spoke by phone to mango researcher Mahbub Siddiqui. He said that alongside several local year-round mango varieties, the country also has one foreign year-round mango: Katimon from Thailand. The variety is new to the country, and the ripe fruit has hardly any fibre. That sparked our interest in the tree.

Looking at photos of the tree, its blossom and fruit, Sabiha Afroz, a horticulturist at the Asad Gate Horticulture Centre in the capital, said it is the Thai Katimon, a year-round mango. The centre's garden did have Katimon saplings, but all have now been sold.

A Google search for Katimon turned up an article written by the deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Meherpur district. It led us to Abul Kashem, a nursery owner in Tetulia village of Jibannagar upazila, Chuadanga. According to the article, Katimon spread in Bangladesh from his nursery. His business friend Nurul Islam brought saplings from Thailand and gave them to him around 2010. Abul Kashem raised the saplings through various trials, and the variety then spread to different parts of the country.

Reached by phone, Abul Kashem said the Thai mango fruits three times a year. One of the three rounds finished ripening in the Bengali months of Ashwin and Kartik. Each time the fruit is picked, the branches are pruned, and the tender shoots that grow afterwards flower again. After pruning in Kartik, the new shoots on the tree have now come into blossom again, and this round's fruit will be harvested in Falgun.

Abul Kashem added that trees flower just three or four months after planting, but the blossom should be broken off. It is better not to let a tree fruit until it is one to one and a half years old, so that it grows strong.

He said Thailand's Katimon is now widely grown in different parts of the country, alongside varieties such as Fazli, Langra, Ashwina, Nakfazli, Ranipasand, Gopalbhog and Himsagar.

Source: Prothom Alo. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.