EDMONTON—The demand for a South Asian delicacy is quickly outpacing supply in specialty grocery stores across Alberta.

In recent years, the South Asian population in Edmonton and Calgary has boomed — and this has coincided with a growing demand for mangoes. The juicy, sweet fruit is grown across India and Pakistan in the summertime and is shipped across the world to countries with large South Asian immigrant and diaspora populations.

Edmonton and Calgary are no exceptions. South Asians form the largest immigrant group in Alberta, with around 35,000 Indians and Pakistanis arriving between 2011 and 2016, according to Statistics Canada. While there has been a recent uptick in immigrants from the Philippines, the longer trends of South Asian population have created ethnic enclaves in neighbourhoods in Edmonton’s southeast and Calgary’s northeast.

These neighbourhoods are ground zero for an ongoing boom in the mango business in the province.

“The demand is phenomenal,” said Vinny Bindra, manager of the Spice Centre, a grocery store that’s located among a stretch of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan businesses on 34 Avenue.

Since opening in 1990, the demand for mangoes — which the store carries from late spring until early fall — has skyrocketed. Whereas they used to sell 50 boxes in a week, nowadays they manage to sell the same amount in one day. Demand can top 500 boxes a week.

“Mango season at our store is fantastic every single year, especially this year we started getting varieties that we weren’t before,” said Bindra, who receives a weekly shipment of mangoes from India and Pakistani that are flown by air freight.

StarMetro Edmonton reporters Kashmala Fida and Ameya Charnalia explain why mangoes from Edmonton's specialty grocery stores are selling out.

Stores like his work with brokers abroad who procure the mangoes from South Asian farmers. The mangoes are loaded onto flights and are flown to Edmonton and Calgary, where they’re ripened in warehouses before making their way onto shelves.

The process requires care and attention to detail. The mangoes must ripen correctly to attain the perfect texture and taste. A single-day delay in shipments can cause a whole box to go bad.

Prices range from anywhere between $4 to $14, depending on the provenance of the mango. Prized South Asian varieties such as the alphonso and chaunsa can fetch as much as $30 for a box containing anywhere between four to a dozen mangoes. According to Bindra, the steep prices don’t deter mango enthusiasts from spending on their favourite fruit.

“If you have something available all the time, you don’t appreciate it,” Bindra said. “A lot of people grew up eating these mangoes and as soon as they eat these mangoes, they are taken back to their childhood.”

Mangoes are available year-round. South American varieties from Mexico and Caribbean nations are available in big-box stores, even in the wintertime. These are a different group than their South Asian counterparts, which are usually sweeter because they’re grown in drier regions, according to Jayasankar Subramanian, a plant agriculture professor at the University of Guelph.

“Alphonso is a very old variety and it has an outstanding flavour and also it has less fibre,” he said of the popular variety of mango grown in western India. “When you cut it, it just goes in like in an apple or a peach.”

While alphonso mangoes elicit childhood memories for many Indians, the same can be said of the chaunsa variety and Pakistanis.

“In every backyard there used to be a mango tree,” said Salman Naseer, president of the Edmonton branch of the Pakistan Canada Association, recalling his childhood.

“I can bet on it: if we can arrange a mango party where we invite the different communities and bring different types of mangoes, I think that would be one of the most successful events we can offer as a community.”

While chaunsa has a golden yellow colour and a sweet aroma, alphonso carries a fibreless pulp and is considered to be one of the sweetest varieties. But these two are by no means the only ones available in Alberta. The smaller badami variety resembles an alphonso’s exterior but is even sweeter. A box of badami tops $40 at the Spice Centre, which started carrying them this year.

All told, there are more than 750 mango varieties proven to be genetically distinct, Subramanian said.

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For most of its cultivation history, the mango was grown using seeds, until grafting was made common around 50 years ago. The differences between seeds engendered so many varieties of mangoes.

“It was largely like, ‘My backyard tree is better’ and each village had one tree that was identified as superior and that’s how these varieties came,” Subramanian said.

The immense varieties of mangoes — both from South Asia and South America — are increasingly becoming available for purchase in Alberta’s specialty grocery stores.

Last Wednesday, Bindra arranged for his next shipment to arrive the following weekend. Despite the high price point, he anticipates they’ll sell out within hours.

“It’s about what (people are) connected to — what the mango brings back to them.”

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