Eating a mango fresh and dripping with juice is an exquisite experience in stickiness. Few fruits can compare. More mangoes are eaten fresh worldwide than any other fruit, and yet many northern hemisphere dwellers have never seen one. A tropical fruit produced by the millions of tons, the mango originated in an area overlapping today's India and Burma (Myanmar) thousands of years ago. It was probably growing in the fertile valley of the Indus by 4000 BC. The mango did not rapidly venture far from its home-the fruit is highly perishable, its seed prone to decay rapidly.

Florida mango growing was steadily increasing over the years until the devastation of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Hundreds of mango trees were blown down in the storm. Production now is at about 5.5 million pounds. And Hawaiian production is just beginning. Consumption of mangoes in the United States is leaping far ahead of what Florida growers can provide, jumping by 20% each year since 1993. American fruit eaters now regularly choose mangoes over apricots, cherries, and plums. To meet that demand, the U.S. imported over 311 million pounds of Mexican mangoes in 1996. Haiti, Guatemala and Brazil also export mangoes to North America.

India is the major mango producer of the world. India grows them all, in the millions of tons, on well over 2 million acres of land. The mango tree is not just the source of delicious fruit-to the Indians it is a symbol of love, a granter of wishes. Mango leaves are featured at weddings to insure that new couples are able to bear children. When children do come their arrival is celebrated in villages by the decorating of doorways with mango leaves.