Dialogue on use of harmless ethephon, not formalin in mangoes held

JESSORE, May 18: A new concept on mango marketing was revealed at a regional dialogue of farmers, businessmen, researchers, journalists and government officials at Hotel City Plaza in Jessore town on Monday.

In the dialogue, arranged by USAID's Agricultural Value Chains Project on enabling policy environment for safe mango marketing, it was revealed that  formalin is not used in marketing mangoes as the chemical does not play any role in preserving mango like fruits. The machine that was used to examine formalin is produced only to check the formalin in the air inside a chemical factory not in mangoes.

Mango itself carries 3 to 60 pm formalin. Businessmen use ethephon in mangoes as a preservative which is not harmful for human.

Professor Dr MA Rahim of Bangladesh Agricultural University presented keynote paper in dialogue while Abdus Samad, divisional commissioner, Khulna was the chief guest.

It was addressed among others by Dr Humayun Kabir, deputy commissioner, Jessore, Dr William T Levine, chief of party, USAID's Agricultural Value Chains Project,  Bani Amin, deputy chief of party, Sazzad Hossain, regional manager, researcher Abul Kalam Azad, journalist Saifur Rahman Saif, Saiful Islam Liton and  president, Fruit Traders Association, Jessore.

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