The Japanese Government formally lifted the ban on import of Indian mangoes on 23 June 2006, following the announcement by Mr. Shoichi Nakagawa, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, during the visit of H.E. Mr. Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce and Industry of India, to Tokyo this month (14-16 June 2006), to allow import of Indian mangoes in Japan by July 2006. This matter has been a technically unsettled issue between the two Governments since 1996 (the Indian Government formally requested Japan to lift the ban on import of Indian mangoes in Japan, in 1996), and persevering efforts have been made among plant quarantine authorities, concerned departments and organizations. Moreover, the two Ministers exercised their strong leadership in overcoming difficulties on this issue, utilizing the opportunity of their meeting in the on-going World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, etc. Many Japanese Members of Parliament who visited India also became supportive on this issue after having savored this ''king of fruits'' in India.

    The mangoes (Alphonso, Banganpalli, Kesar, Langra, Chausa and Malika), which are grown in pre-identified areas (i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal), can now be exported by India after proper implementation of vapor heat treatment (VHT) agreed by plant quarantine authorities of both countries.

    Japan is said to have one of the most stringent plant quarantine regimes comparable with such other countries as U.S. or Australia. Japan prohibits importation of mangoes from areas with fruit-flies (pests of mango, bitter gourd, citrus fruits, etc.) and handles the issue of fruit-flies very cautiously, mainly because Japan has had the bitter experience of having suffered from the ravages of fruit-flies in Okinawa Islands and to finally eradicate them after a fight lasting over 20 years with more than a 20 billion Yen budget having been spent. Japan has, however, lifted the ban on import of mangoes from 7 countries and regions with fruit-flies (India has become the 7th country in this regard) as soon as it confirmed the safety from fruit-flies damage, as a result of the development of a disinfection method (like VHT) capable of complete destruction of these flies.

    It was in 1993 that the Japanese Government granted a test-purpose VHT machine to the Pusa (IARI) Campus, New Delhi, under Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA), to support development of the disinfection method by Indian experts. Besides the grant, the Japanese Government has also invited Indian experts to Japan as trainees of VHT under a JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) scheme since 1990. Five Indian experts were invited till the end of last year. After long years of trial and error by Indian experts, including these former trainees, to develop the disinfection method with VHT machine in Pusa Campus, the method was finally accepted in the presence of a Japanese technical team dispatched earlier this year, with the result of complete extermination of fruit-flies.