Come July, South Koreans will finally get to taste the ‘King of fruits’. “The protracted issues surrounding the import of mango have been resolved,” said Cho Hyun, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in India. Indian mangoes are headed to Korea for the first time, and initial consignments of Alphonso and other varieties should arrive there by early July.
Exports from India India exports some 4,500 tonnes of mangoes every year. The fruit goes mainly to West Asia, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Exports to Japan, South Asian countries and the EU have been low due to import issues there.
Cho Hyun, who was in Hyderabad at the head of the ‘Korean Caravan’ of 40 companies and a cultural troupe, identified cinema, tourism, student exchanges and collaboration in joint manufacture of generic drugs as new areas of immense potential for both nations outside of the big businesses.
As in India, the Korean cinema industry is big. If Indian cinema market is 90 per cent domestic, Korea’s is 60 per cent. There is tremendous scope here. Korea is the partner country for the upcoming Goa film festival.
Interestingly, there have been two remakes of Korean films — Rocky Handsome , with John Abraham in the lead role; and Jazbaa , which had Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan and Irrfan Khan in the lead roles.
Korean visitors
Ambassador Cho Hyun also felt both countries should do more to attract students and tourists.
Only about 300 Korean students are in India currently.
Compare this to 50,000 in China. In the US, students from South Korea form the third largest contingent after China and India. Similarly, despite being globetrotters, just about 1.3 lakh Koreans visit India every year.
“I have been personally making efforts to talk to students to motivate them to come to India. Similarly, steps should be taken to promote tourism, and the nice locales for cinema shooting,” he said.
Increasing the six direct flights a week from India to 19 soon should give all this a fillip. Though it is minuscule compared to the 500 flights between Korea and China, he pointed out to the immense potential.
“There is a need for improving the image of India in South Asian countries, especially Korea and in the last two years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi there has been a change,” Ambassador Cho Hyun said.