Pakistan's (Literally) Forbidden Fruit
What's better than eating perfectly ripened, juicy mangoes in the heat of the summer? Pakistani mangoes.
A recent CNN video shows how Americans from as far away as Los Angeles are traveling to Toronto parking lots where the coveted fruit is sold by one Shahzad Shahid, who runs a home delivery mango company through buymangoes.ca.
Why are Shahid's customers willing to travel such long distances? It turns out Pakistani mangoes are banned in the US because of Department of Agriculture regulations regarding pest management at the orchard and postharvest level. There is also fear that the exportation of mangoes from Pakistan may threaten America's domestic tropical fruit industry.
But fret not. The US recently signaled that it was ready to talk mango with Pakistan in an attempt to ease relations between the two countries—and during her visit to Islamabad last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the country's mangoes could hit US retailers as soon as this winter.