ROADTOWN Tortola BVI, June 12th, 2012 – The Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour will host the third annual Mango Array and Tropical Fruit Festival slated for Friday, July 13, 2012 at the Noel Lloyd Positive Action Movement Park.
Speaking on the upcoming festival Deputy Chief Agricultural Officer and event coordinator, Mrs. Arona Fahie-Forbes said, “The Mango Array and Tropical Fruit Festival will continue to be a key cultural tool in the Virgin Islands as it serves to promote a sense of community identity, economic growth and diversification through a wide range of foods and other goods produced from mangoes and tropical fruits.”
Mrs. Forbes continued to explain that, “The festival will provide the opportunity for various cultivar growers of mango and tropical fruits to share their varieties with the community as well as creating a venue for crop producers’ and business owners alike to showcase their produce, arts and crafts, food and merchandise made from any part of the mango fruit tree and any other tropical fruit tree.”
Local varieties of mangoes expected to be on display include the ‘Julie’, ‘Boar-Hog’, ‘Tina’, ‘Rocky’, ‘Bandy’, ‘Bulltone’, ‘Touch-me-not’, Hardskin’, ‘Cottage’, ‘Kidney’, and ‘Cutlass’.
Activities planned for that day will include a display of all the local fruits, a mango eating competition for children, quizzes, games, face painting, bobbing for mangoes, training on fruit tree production on the nutritional value, uses, production and crop husbandry and management, along with a propagation session which includes air layering, budding, and grafting.
The festival is also open to vendors who can sell assorted fruit trees, ornamentals, arts and crafts, food and fresh produce.
Persons interested in participating in the various competitions and being a vendor in the festival are asked to contact Mrs. Arona Fahie-Forbes at the Department of Agriculture at 495-2110 or 468-9212.
Additionally there will be a poetry competition and poems should reflect the cultural value and love for mango and other tropical fruits grown or consumed in the Territory.
Persons should submit their original poems legibly on letter-sized paper with a cover sheet stapled to the poem showing the poet’s name, title of the poem, age group, telephone number and email address. Entries from the children and teen categories should also include the age, school and grade.
Poems will be judged for originality, creativity and adherence to the focus and should not exceed 40 lines. Persons are asked to submit their entries to Lrabsatt@gov.vg by Thursday, June 28 or to the Department of Agriculture by 4pm.
Winners will be announced and awarded at the Mango Array and Tropical Fruit Festival. To receive a complete list of the poetry guidelines, contact Ms. Linette Rabsatt at the Department of Agriculture at telephone 495-2110 or via email Lrabsatt@gov.vg.
The third annual Mango Array and Tropical Fruit Festival serves to promote the cultivation, caring and maintenance of traditional fruits such as mangoes in the Virgin Islands while aiming to unite producers’, supermarkets, proprietors and the community in one to create a sense of identity and an overall greater appreciation for the tastes and varieties of local fruits.
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