Mango season is approaching, with young fruit on trees everywhere. Mango is now a commercial crop across the country. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Bangladesh has the fastest growth in fruit production, and it began exporting mangoes last year.

The FAO says Bangladesh has advantages in the world mango market: when its mangoes ripen, no other country's mangoes are on the market, and UK buyers call Bangladeshi mangoes among the tastiest. With international standards, exports of 1,000 tonnes a year are possible.

But growers are troubled. In 2014, trucks of mangoes were destroyed at Dhaka's entry points over formalin claims; tests later showed the device used measured formalin in air. In 2015, an informal harvest date was set, and growers told Seraj they suffered heavy losses and confusion, as the administration, the mango research institute and the DAE had different ideas.

At a gathering of more than 200 growers and traders at Pannapara, Charghat, Rajshahi, growers said: "Does the administration know better than the grower when a variety will ripen?" They said no orchard owner puts chemicals on mangoes; they do not even know what formalin is. Sometimes after harvest they apply the ripening hormone ethephon (Ethrel) on advice, which experts say is not harmful in moderation.

Dr Alimuddin, chief scientific officer at the Fruit Research Institute, Rajshahi, said there should be no harvest date, since varieties and orchards ripen at different times. Seraj also learned that no written date had been set last year; it spread by rumour. He met Deputy Commissioner Kazi Ashrafuddin to urge that growers not suffer.

Mango researcher Mahbub Siddique of Rajshahi has a calendar based on growers' experience. Examples: Gopalbhog 25 May to 10 June; Himsagar 10 to 30 June; Langra 15 June to 15 July; Amrapali 28 June to 25 July; Fazli 5 July to 15 August; Ashwina 20 July to 30 August.

Source: Shykh Seraj. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.