Indian mangoes are tough to find, for now

Mangoes grown in Latin America land in all manner of dishes at Washington, D.C.'s fashionable Rasika restaurant, from mango-marinated shrimp to fish curry, even the occasional mango ice cream.

But chef Vikram Sunderman vowed a more pared down, reverential approach after recently learning Indian mangoes, the drippingly sweet fruit of his childhood, would be available for the first time in the United States.

"People should appreciate the true value of the mango as it is," he says, noting that he immediately ordered nearly a dozen cases and served the fruit unadorned in martini glasses for $8 a serving.

Thanks to the government's approval of an irradiation technique that neutralizes a pest indigenous to Indian mangoes, more than 24 tons of the fruit have arrived in the U.S. since April.

But if you want to try one, you'll have to look hard, order early and pay dearly. The shipments have gone almost exclusively to ethnic Indian markets, where they sell out before they even arrive.

"Our first shipment, they sold 160 cases in two hours," says Swetal Patel, a spokesman for Chicago-based Patel Brothers, an Indian grocer with more than two dozen outlets across the country.

Patel and other retailers say many of the boxes are reserved by customers in advance. And whatever is unspoken for sells out quickly. "Whoever's getting them in their store, they're selling out in 24 to 48 hours," he says.

What's the fuss? Indian mangoes -- of which Alphonso and Kesar are among the most highly prized varieties -- are considered sweeter and more aromatic than those from Mexico or South America, source of most of the 275,000 tons of mangoes consumed by Americans each year.

But it's more than just flavor. Indians have a romantic relationship with what they call "the king of fruits," revering the tree as a symbol of love, draping newlyweds with the leaves to ensure fertility and imitating its shape in the paisley design of elegant shawls.

And mango memories -- such as Sunderman's recollections of sticky-faced summers at his grandparents' home in the Indian coastal town of Ratnagiri where he plowed through crates of the red-orange globes -- can inspire swooning nostalgia.

Nostalgia that comes at a cost.

While a dozen Latin American mangoes run $6 to $8, Indian mangoes are averaging $35 to $40, a price inflated by the limited supply and the need to ship them by air to avoid the 18-day journey by sea.

"Six out of 10 people will say 'I remember exactly where I was when I had an Indian mango.' That's what an Indian mango does. It takes you back to when you were a kid," Patel says.

Not everyone buys into that, including some of the Indian grocers selling the mangoes.

"It's ridiculous to pay such an amount for mangoes," says Ravi Singh, owner of Global Flavors in Nashua, N.H. He sells -- and sells out of -- boxes of Alphonsos for $45, but predicts consumers will soon return to cheaper options.

"A mango is a mango," he says.

Distributors and business executives handling the imports predict prices will come down during the next year or two, and that the supply will vastly expand, creating a lasting demand.

The steep cost and scarcity on this first round are the result of disorganized logistics and inadequate infrastructure. India produces 14 million tons of mangoes a year, or about half of the world's total supply.

But only 60,000 tons are exported, according to the U.S.-India Business Council. And not because the domestic population is eating them. More than a third of all Indian produce spoils en route to market, the victim of poor roads and a lack of refrigeration.

Also, Indian mangoes coming to the U.S. must be irradiated, and India has only one irradiation facility.

"With the one gateway at Nasik, how many of those can they really push out into the international marketplace?" says Ron Somers, president of the U.S.-India Business Council, referring to the Indian industrial city that houses the irradiation facility.

In addition, the mangoes have been coming by special air shipment, the most expensive form of transport. But Somers says that among his 250 members are several cargo companies, including UPS and FedEx, who have been looking for business to fill their planes on return trips from India, flights on which the planes often go empty.

"As the supply chain infrastructure gets discovered, and as the transportation linkage gets pulled together, you will find a reduction in cost that's a benefit to consumers," Somers says. "And I do think the enthusiasm will be sustained."

In addition, irradiation slows the ripening process and extends the shelf life of mangoes. And it is hoped that extending the shelf life eventually will buy enough time to ship the fruit by sea, a more cost effective option.

Though hugely popular elsewhere in the world, mangoes remain mostly exotic to Americans, who eat about 20 pounds of apples per person a year -- 10 times the amount of mangoes.

But they are open to the concept, say retailers and distributors. And mainstream retailers are interested in getting Indian mangoes. But first the price has to come down, and supply has to increase.

"Down the road when things open up and we can import them by ocean rather than air, and there's more of them, that changes the ballgame," says Richard Robinson, marketing manager of Triton International, a distributor of niche items like guava paste rolls and chocolate dipped frozen bananas.

"These first few shipments have been considered more or less a test just to make sure we can do it. Like anything else it starts small and builds," he says.