RAHIM YAR KHAN: A three-day 12th annual mango show kicked off at the Shaikh Zayed Public School auditorium here on Friday.

The show, inaugurated by DPO Zeeshan Asghar, was organized jointly by the agriculture department and the district government.

More than 580 mango orchard owners, including five mango farms, displayed at least 74 different varieties of “king of fruits” including saroli, langra, dasehri, sindhri, chaunsa, anwar ratol, toota pari, neelum, samar bahisht, fajri, senation, saharni, moon bhog, begum pali, malda, sanglakhi, kela aki, ameer gola, gulab, surkha, rab di shan, anokh sarda, azeemowala and jaman.

Mango farmers said the fruit crop was better than last year but a heavy dust storm in the beginning of the mango season damaged the crop of mid and late varieties.

Mango grower Imran Qureshi of Dera Shamash said the Punjab government was not serious to benefit from the king of fruits by establishing grading and packing plants in the district.

He said the mango farmers could sell their best produce not only in the country but also in the Middle East and Europe if the government set up grading and packing plants in Rahim Yar Khan.

Another grower Yaqoob Jhabail of Sardargarh said the chief minister had in 2010 inaugurated a cold storage outside the Sheikh Zayed International Airport for mango export, but today even the inauguration stone had disappeared.

He said there should be a separate chamber of agriculture in the district especially for the export of best quality mango and cotton.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2016