NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 6, 2007: the 19th annual mango festival will begin at the Talkatora stadium in the Capital on Saturday. Several contests, including mango culinary, mango eating competitions, quizzes, apart from fruit and vegetable carvings by leading chefs and cultural programs will be held during the two-day festival. Delhi Tourism Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said the festival would feature some uncommon as well as commercially popular varieties including, Kesar, Banganpalli, Totapari, Safeda, Neela Fazli, Mallika, Dusheri, Malda, Amrapali, of the fruit. The festival is being organized by the Delhi Tourism with support from Agriculture produce Food Export and Development Authority (APEDA ), National Horticulture Board, NDMC and Dabur.
“The mango festival aims at providing exposure to the domestic mango industry and exporters. It is designed to reach out through an informal and international platform with a two-pronged approach: addressing tourism and promoting mango export,” Lovely said.
Mentioned in the Vedas and Upanishads the mango is considered auspicious and a symbol of life and joy forever. The largest producer of mangoes, India grows more than eleven hundred varieties of mangoes in different parts of the country. The Mango Festival is the place to discover the magic of mangoes in all their immense variety.