Karmactive Staff
The United States canceled 15 shipments of Indian mangoes worth $500,000. The reason was simple but costly – wrong paperwork. US officials found errors in a mandatory form called PPQ203. This form proves that mangoes received proper treatment to kill bugs and pests.
The mangoes arrived at Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta airports in May. All shipments came from Mumbai after getting radiation treatment on May 8 and 9. US customs officers rejected every single shipment because the paperwork didn’t match their requirements.
Indian exporters had two choices. Send the mangoes back to India or destroy them in America. Mangoes spoil fast, and shipping costs too much. So exporters chose to throw away 25 metric tonnes of premium mangoes, including Alphonso, Kesar, Banganapalli, and Himayat varieties. The loss hit Rs 4.2 crore.
Here’s what makes this really frustrating. A US inspector in Mumbai watches the whole radiation process. The same US inspector signs the PPQ203 forms. Yet, US customs in America said these same forms were wrong. One Indian exporter said, “We are being penalized for mistakes made at the irradiation facility.”
The radiation treatment kills fruit flies and other bugs that could damage American farms. This happens at three US-approved centers in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad. A US agriculture department officer stays at each center to monitor everything.
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Indian officials got angry. They said US inspectors didn’t follow proper rules. The Maharashtra State Agricultural Marketing Board runs the Mumbai center. They said US inspectors should have talked to them first about any problems. “Instead of discussing the matter with relevant agencies or notifying the facility beforehand, they directly reported the alleged issues to their senior offices in the US, resulting in the rejection of the 15 consignments,” board officials said.
The board thinks their workers didn’t write down radiation measurements properly. These measurements show how much radiation the mangoes got. Wrong numbers mean wrong paperwork. An investigation started to find exactly what went wrong.
This paperwork problem happened during India’s best mango export year to America. Mango sales to the US jumped 130% to $10 million in 2023-24. That’s up from $4.36 million the year before. America now buys 23% of all Indian mango exports. Only the UAE buys more.
The mango trade between India and America has an interesting history. America banned Indian mangoes from 1989 to 2007. US officials worried about fruit flies damaging American crops. President George W. Bush changed everything in 2006. He visited India and tasted an Alphonso mango. Bush called it a “hell of a fruit.” Soon after, America started buying Indian mangoes again.
The trade grew fast. India exported just 157 tonnes to America in 2007. By 2023, that number reached 2,500 tonnes. India grows over 1,000 different mango types and produces 43% of the world’s mangoes.
The export process has many steps. Mangoes come from registered farms. They get sorted at approved centers. Workers treat them with hot water to kill the fungus. Then comes radiation treatment at US-certified facilities. The US officer must check everything and sign the PPQ203 form. Without this form, mangoes can’t enter America.
Even small mistakes on the form can cancel entire shipments. Missing information, wrong dates, or incorrect measurements all cause problems. For mangoes that spoil quickly, there’s no time to fix paperwork mistakes.
The Mumbai facility fixed its problems fast. Operations returned to normal on May 10. Between May 11 and May 18, the facility sent 53,072 boxes of mangoes to America. That’s 185.75 tonnes across 39 shipments. The other two facilities in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad kept working normally throughout the crisis.
This incident shows how paperwork errors can cost a lot of money in international food trade. When fruits spoil fast, exporters can’t wait for officials to fix mistakes. The US Agriculture Department and Indian officials need better communication to prevent future problems.
