28 April

THE Myanmar Mango Market and  Technology  Development  Association  will  sponsor  the  second  annual  mango  festival  near Kuthodaw Pagoda in Man-dalay  between  16  and  18  May,  according  to  its  secretary,  U  Kyaw Soe Naing.

This is part of the associa-tion’s efforts to introduce local-ly  produced  mangoes  to  mer-chants  and  seek  new  markets  for potential varieties of mango through festivals.

A  wide  variety  of  mangos  grown  in  regions  and  states,  plus value-added mango prod-ucts, will be displayed for sale during  the  three-day  festival.  The number of booths is expect-ed to increase during the second festival.

The first mango festival was successfully held on 20-22 May 2018,  when  more  than  15  tons  of  mangos  were  sold  through  a  special  sale  programme,  which  attracted  people  to  the festival.

Market  experts  estimate  that mango production is likely to drop this season, due to un-favourable weather conditions. Mango  growers  in  Mandalay  Region  are  currently  facing  losses due to damage at mango plantations.

Growers  are  expected  to  rely on local consumption this season, instead of export mar-kets.

Myanmar’s  mangos  are  exported mostly to China, Sin-gapore  and  Thailand.  Among  other  varieties,  Seintalone,  Myakyauk  and  Machitsu  are  the most popular.—IPRD (Translated  by  Khaing  Thanda Lwin)