‘Sugar-free’ mangoes introduced in Pakistan

A Pakistani farm has introduced ‘sugar-free’ mangoes and started selling in the market.

Mangoes usually contain a high amount of sugar. But a scientific modification from a mango expert at a private agriculture farm MH Panhwar Farms dropped down the sugar level to 4 to 6 percent, reports news18 quoting ARY News on Friday.

The mangoes are available in three varieties — Sonaro, Glenn and Keitt.

“The Pakistan government had conferred Sitara-e-Imtiaz of MR Panhwar for his research related to fruits including mangoes and banana. After his death, I continued his work and carried out modification after importing different genres of mangoes from foreign countries to test their growth in this atmosphere and soil,” M Panhwar’s nephew and mango expert Ghulam Sarwar told the ARY News.

He also said that the project is being run without any assistance from the government on a personal basis, adding that there are currently 44 varieties of mangoes on their 300-acre farm.

Sarwar said that he primarily focused on finding new techniques to increase the fruit’s shelf life and control the sugar level for diabetics as well as improving production to introduce new varieties.

According to him, varieties like Sindhri and Chaunsa have 12 to 15 percent sugar, while some varieties have just 4-5 percent sugar.

“Keitt variety has the lowest sugar level up to 4.7 percent while Sonaro and Glenn have sugar level up to 5.6 percent and 6 percent respectively.

The newly-introduced mangoes currently cost around PKR 150 per kilogramme in Pakistani markets.