Are you crazy about nutritious and yummy mangoes, but can’t have enough because of their high-sugar content?
That may no longer be a problem.
A horticulture farm in Pakistan – home to some of the sweetest and most fragrant varieties of mangoes – has developed three new varieties of diet mangoes.
According to the pioneering horticulturist, even diabetics can eat without any toll on their health.
“We have made modifications in the existing mango varieties that has sugar content as low as 4.6 percent,” Ghulam Sarwar Panhwar, the owner of the farm in District Tando Allahyar of Sindh province, told ARY TV channel.
Sindh produces the world-famous Sindhri and other major mango varieties, and the newest low-sugar varieties – named Sonaro, Glenn and Keitt – have already hit the local market.
Ghulam Sarwar Panhwar says the development of varieties has been possible after five years of research and scientifically modified mango work.
“The Keitt variety has the lowest sugar level up to 4.7 percent, while Sonaro and Glenn have sugar levels up to 5.6 percent and six percent respectively.”
The success is owed to the work of legendary agriculturalist and Ghulam Panhwar’s uncle M.H. Panhwar, who devoted a lifelong research to pioneering new varieties of fruits and agricultural produce. He graduated from an American university and had an unrivaled understanding of indigenous agriculture being the son of the soil.
M.H. Panhwar, whose pathbreaking discoveries were recognized with award of Sitara-e-Imtiaz, the highest Pakistani civilian award for extraordinary individuals. His research related to fruits, including mangoes and bananas.
“After his death, I continued his work and carried out modifications after importing different genres of mangoes to test their growth in this atmosphere and soil,” he said.
Currently, the diet mango project is being run privately by the landowner. “We are not taking any assistance from the government departments. I just want to introduce these varieties on the national and international levels. We think about national interests but not [using this project] for gaining profits for ourselves.”
Pakistan produces 1.9 million metric tons of mangoes annually, thus ranking sixth in the world, followed by India, China, Thailand, Indonesia and Mexico. There are two dozens mango varieties, notably, Anwar Ratual, Dasheri, Langra, Saroli, Sindhri, Totapari, and others. But due to the high content of sugar, mango, also called the King of Fruits, is generally not consumed by people having diabetics. The people with high sugar levels in their bodies constitute almost 8 percent of Pakistan’s 220 million population.
Last year, Pakistan exported 130,000 metric tons of mangoes to the Middle East, Europe, the US, Japan, Australia and other countries.
