Pakistani mango varieties
Sindhri, Chaunsa, Sohnaro, Langro, Anwar Ratol and the rest: what each one is, when it runs, and which to buy. Written by growers in Sindh, with the line between what we grow and what we do not drawn clearly.
The short answer
There is no single best Pakistani mango, but there are only a few serious contenders. Buy Sindhri if you want a large, honey-sweet, fibreless mango that stays firm enough to slice and serve, and buy it between mid May and late June. Buy Chaunsa if you want the sweetest, softest, most strongly scented mango of the summer, from June through August. Langro opens the Sindh season in the second half of May and stays green even when ripe. Sohnaro fills a short window in early June and holds its shape better than any of them. Anwar Ratol is a small, intensely sweet Punjab variety we do not grow.
Those five cover most of what anyone actually buys. The rest of this page is the detail behind that, including the ones we grow ourselves and the ones we only know second-hand.
Who is writing this, and why it matters
We grow mangoes in Sindh. That makes us the right people to ask about Sindhri, Sohnaro and Langro, and it makes us second-hand on the Punjab varieties, which we do not grow. This page is written with that line drawn clearly, because most variety guides online are written by sellers who blur it.
Where a variety is ours, you will get detail from the orchard. Where it is not, you will get the general picture and a note saying so.
The varieties at a glance
Pakistan grows a lot of mango varieties. These are the ones that matter commercially, which is a much shorter list.
| Variety | Urdu | Region | Season | Fibre | Our 5 KG box | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sindhri | سندھڑی | Sindh | Mid May to late June | Fibreless | Rs. 3,599 | Large, honey sweet, firm-set, small stone |
| Chaunsa | چونسہ | Punjab and Sindh | June to August | Fibreless | Ask us | Very sweet, very soft, strongly aromatic |
| Sohnaro | – | Sindh | Early to mid June | Low | Rs. 2,000 | Firmer, balanced, short window |
| Langro | – | Sindh | Mid to late May | Fibreless | Rs. 2,000 | Stays green when ripe, soft, aromatic |
| Anwar Ratol | انور رٹول | Punjab | – | Fibreless | Not grown here | Small, intensely sweet, thin skin |
| Langra | لنگڑا | Punjab | – | Low | Not grown here | Greenish when ripe, turpentine note |
| Dussehri | دسہری | Punjab | – | Fibreless | Not grown here | Elongated, sweet, popular early |
| Fajri | فجری | Punjab | – | Some | Not grown here | Very large, late season |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Prices are our own 2027 booking prices for a 5 KG box, direct from the orchard, and there is a fuller explanation of what sets the price of a Pakistani mango. "Not grown here" means exactly that: we are not going to quote you a price for fruit we do not grow. A dash means we have not recorded it rather than that it does not exist, and we have left the season blank for varieties we do not grow rather than repeat dates we cannot stand behind.
The four we grow
Everything in this section comes from our own orchard.
Sindhri سندھڑی
The flagship and the reason people know Sindh for mangoes. Large, long and tapering, with smooth even golden skin and no blush. Honey sweet with a fine floral smell, fibreless, and firm enough that it still slices cleanly when ripe. The stone is small and thin, so there is more fruit in one than its size suggests. Picked mid May into late June.
Full detail: the complete Sindhri guide.
Chaunsa چونسہ
The sweetest of the four and the most strongly scented. Rounder and plumper than Sindhri, often with a light blush. Very soft and juicy when ripe, which makes it the one you eat over a sink rather than serve on a plate. It runs from June right through to August and is what closes our season.
Chaunsa is grown in both Punjab and Sindh, and it is the variety most people abroad have actually eaten.
Full detail: the Chaunsa guide.
Sohnaro
Firmer and more balanced than Chaunsa, noticeably less sugary, and it holds its shape when cut. The window is short, roughly early to mid June. Very few people outside Sindh have tried it, which is a shame, because it is the one we would pick if we wanted fruit that behaves itself in a kitchen.
Full detail: the Sohnaro guide.
Langro
The first fruit off our trees each year, in the second half of May. It keeps a green or greenish-yellow skin even when it is fully ripe, so judging it by colour will have you waiting for something that never happens. Go by smell and by give. Soft, fibreless and strongly scented.
Full detail: the Langro guide, including why it is not the Punjab Langra.
Varieties we do not grow
These are the other names you will meet. We are describing them from general knowledge of the trade, not from our own trees, so treat the detail as a guide rather than a grower's account.
Anwar Ratol انور رٹول
A Punjab variety and the one most often named when people argue about the best mango in Pakistan. Small, thin-skinned and intensely sweet. Because it is small it is sold by the dozen more often than by weight.
Langra لنگڑا
Stays greenish when ripe, with a distinctive resinous or turpentine note that people either love or avoid entirely. Widely grown across the subcontinent.
Worth saying plainly: Langra and the Langro we grow in Sindh are easy to confuse and the names are often used loosely. If which one you are getting matters, ask whoever is selling it, and ask us if you are buying from us.
Dussehri دسہری
Elongated, sweet and fibreless, and one of the earlier Punjab varieties. Very widely planted.
Fajri فجری
Notably large and late in the season. A single fruit can be a meal.
Others
Saroli, Began Phali, Neelum, Almas and a long tail of local varieties are grown in smaller quantities or for particular markets, and several are regional enough that you will only meet them near where they are grown.
Why there are so many
A mango tree does not breed true from seed. Plant the stone of a Sindhri and you do not get a Sindhri, you get something new and usually worse. Every tree of a named variety is propagated by grafting from an existing one, which means each variety traces back to a single original tree that somebody decided was worth keeping.
That is why varieties are so local, and why names drift between regions. Somebody found a good tree, grafted it, and it spread as far as the people who knew about it. It also means that when a variety is lost, it is genuinely lost.
It is the reason an orchard is a long commitment. You are not planting a crop, you are planting a decision that your grandchildren will live with. Ours were planted in 1930 and the ones still producing were chosen by a man none of us met.
Where they grow, and why it matters
Pakistan's mango crop comes from two regions that behave quite differently, and knowing which one you are buying from tells you more than most labels do.
Sindh
The lower Sindh belt runs through Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar, Tando Muhammad Khan and the districts around them, on the left bank of the Indus inland from Hyderabad. The land is deep alluvial floodplain, the irrigation reaches it, and the summer arrives early and hard.
That early heat is the whole point. Sindh picks before Punjab does, which is why the Pakistani season opens here. Sindhri is the signature, and Sohnaro and Langro sit either side of it.
Punjab
The Punjab belt centres on Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur. It runs later and it is where most of the Chaunsa volume and almost all of the Anwar Ratol comes from. Punjab also has the larger share of national production.
Why the distinction gets blurred
Fruit moves. A seller in Lahore in May is selling Sindhi fruit whether or not they say so, because Punjab has nothing ready yet. Branding rarely mentions the region of origin, and consolidated boxes can mix growers. If origin matters to you, ask, and expect a specific answer rather than "Pakistan".
How not to be sold the wrong thing
Four checks that cost nothing.
Check the month. It is the single most useful filter. Sindhri in August is not Sindhri.
Check the shape. Long and tapering is Sindhri. Round and plump is Chaunsa. Small is probably Anwar Ratol.
Check for a blush. An even gold with no red is Sindhri. A blush points to Chaunsa.
Smell the stem end. Heavy and sweet across the room is Chaunsa. Fine and floral, close up, is Sindhri. Nothing at all means it is not ready, whatever it is.
And one thing to ignore entirely: colour as a ripeness test. Langro stays green when fully ripe, and several varieties go gold days before they are ready. Press gently with your whole palm instead.
Grades and what the words mean
"Export grade", "A grade" and "premium" are used loosely across the trade and they are not standardised in any way you can rely on from a web page.
On our orchard, export grade means fruit that came through sorting with no bruise, no blemish, no sap burn, an even shape and a size inside the band for its pack. Everything failing any of those goes to the domestic market instead, which is not a judgement about taste. A mango with a mark on the skin tastes the same. It is a judgement about whether it will survive several more handling steps and still look sellable a long way away.
The share of a crop that makes export grade varies year to year with the weather, which is why export pricing moves even when domestic pricing does not.
The season calendar
Pakistani mangoes run from roughly May to September, but no single variety runs the whole way. Sindh comes first, Punjab follows.
| Month | What is available |
|---|---|
| May | Sindh opens. Langro from mid month, Sindhri from mid May. |
| June | Peak. Sindhri running, Sohnaro in its short window, Chaunsa starting. |
| July | Chaunsa through the month. Punjab varieties in volume. |
| August | Chaunsa continuing and closing out. Late Punjab varieties. |
| September | Effectively over for the varieties we grow. |
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
If you want a specific variety you have to buy in its window. There is no cold-stored version of a Sindhri in September, and anyone selling you one is selling you something else.
More detail on our own windows: when is Sindhri mango season.
Choosing between them
If you want the sweetest, Chaunsa. If you want the most elegant and the easiest to serve, Sindhri. If you want something firm that holds its shape, Sohnaro. If you want the earliest fruit of the year, Langro.
If you are buying for people who grew up in Pakistan, ask them which one. They will have an opinion and it will be strongly held.
A direct head to head on the two most commonly confused: Sindhri vs Chaunsa.
If you are buying for the first time
Start with Sindhri if it is May or June, Chaunsa if it is July or August. Those two are the least polarising and the most widely available, and between them they cover most of the season.
Buy a smaller quantity than you think you want for a first order. Mangoes arrive firm and ripen together, and five kilos ripening at once in a warm kitchen is a lot of mango in a short window. People consistently underestimate this.
And buy in the season. The single biggest determinant of whether a Pakistani mango is any good is whether it was picked at the right moment and eaten within a couple of weeks of it. Everything else is secondary.
Getting them home in one piece
Whichever variety you end up with, the handling is much the same and it is where most of the fruit gets wasted.
Open the box the moment it arrives and take every mango out. Set aside any that are already soft to eat first. Lay the rest in a single layer somewhere cool and dark, not stacked in a bowl, because the ones underneath bruise and a spoiled mango takes its neighbours with it.
They will not ripen at the same rate and that is normal. Check daily and move each one to the fridge as it comes good, rather than waiting for the whole box. Never refrigerate one that is still hard.
Full detail: how to ripen and store Pakistani mangoes.
Buying Pakistani mangoes
In Pakistan, we sell 5 KG boxes direct from the orchard: Sindhri at Rs. 3,599, Sohnaro and Langro at Rs. 2,000. See the shop.
Abroad, most fruit travels by air during the season. We have market notes for the UK, the UAE and the USA, and a page on sending boxes to family in Pakistan if you are ordering from abroad for someone at home.
Importers and trade buyers: get in touch about the 2027 season.
How the trade actually works
Worth understanding if you are buying at any scale, because it explains a lot about price and quality.
Most growers do not sell to you
The usual route is that an orchard's crop is sold ahead of the season to a contractor, who takes on the harvest and the risk and sells it onward. The grower gets a known sum early; the contractor takes whatever the market gives. It is a reasonable arrangement for a farmer who cannot carry a bad year, and it is why the person who grew your mangoes is usually several steps removed from the person who sold them.
Which is why origin is vague
By the time fruit reaches a shop it has often been consolidated from several orchards. Nobody is hiding anything; the information simply is not carried through the chain. If a seller can tell you the district, that is already better than most. If they can tell you the orchard, better still.
The season is short and the risk is front-loaded
Almost all the income from an orchard arrives in a quarter of the year, and the February flowering largely decides it five months ahead. A grower is committed to a year's costs before knowing what the crop will be. That is the background to why mango pricing moves the way it does, and why pre-season booking is useful to both sides.
What we do differently
We sell our own fruit direct, in boxes, from one orchard. That is not better farming, it is a different commercial choice: we carry the risk of the season ourselves and in exchange we can tell you exactly where a box came from. It is the reason this site exists at all.
Questions we get asked
What is the best mango in Pakistan?
There is no settled answer and anyone who gives you one is selling something. Chaunsa is the sweetest, Sindhri the most elegant and the easiest to serve, Anwar Ratol the one most often named by people from Punjab. It depends what you want from the fruit.
Which mango is sweeter, Chaunsa or Sindhri?
Chaunsa, and not by a small margin. Sindhri is honey sweet with acidity underneath that keeps it from being cloying. Chaunsa is sweeter, softer and far more strongly scented. If sweetness is the only thing you are optimising for, buy Chaunsa.
How many mango varieties are grown in Pakistan?
Many, and published counts disagree, ranging from well over a hundred to several hundred depending on whether local and unnamed varieties are included. Only a handful matter commercially: Sindhri, Chaunsa, Anwar Ratol, Langra, Dussehri and Fajri account for most of what is sold, with regional varieties like Sohnaro and Langro alongside them in Sindh.
Which Pakistani mango has the least fibre?
Sindhri, Chaunsa, Langro, Anwar Ratol and Dussehri are all fibreless or near enough. Sindhri is the one that stays firm enough to cut into clean cheeks, which is a different quality from being fibreless and is usually what people are actually asking about. Fajri has more fibre.
When does mango season start in Pakistan?
Sindh opens it in the second half of May and Punjab follows. On our orchard Langro comes off first in mid to late May, Sindhri runs mid May to late June, Sohnaro takes a short window in early June, and Chaunsa carries through to August. The exact start moves by a week or two each year depending on the February flowering and the weather after it.
Which Pakistani mango is best for a milkshake?
Chaunsa. It is the softest and the sweetest, so it blends to a thicker pulp and the sweetness carries through milk. Sindhri is better kept for slicing, where its firmness is the point.
Which mango should I buy if I am serving guests?
Sindhri. It slices cleanly into cheeks and scores into a grid without collapsing, and it looks like something on a plate. Chaunsa is the better mango to eat standing over a sink and the worse one to serve.
Why is Langro green even when it is ripe?
Some varieties simply do not change colour as they ripen, and Langro is one of them. The skin holds its green or greenish-yellow right through, so judging it by colour will have you waiting for something that never happens. Go by smell at the stem end and by how much it gives under your whole palm.
Are Langra and Langro the same mango?
They are easy to confuse and the names are often used loosely. Langra is usually described as a Punjab variety, and the Langro we grow is Sindhi. If it matters for an order, ask us.
What is the difference between Sindh and Punjab mangoes?
Season and variety. Sindh is earlier, starting in May, and is where Sindhri belongs. Punjab comes later and is the home of Anwar Ratol and most of the Chaunsa crop. If you are buying in May you are almost certainly buying Sindhi fruit, whatever the label says.
How much does a box of Pakistani mangoes cost?
Our own 2027 prices, direct from the orchard, are Rs. 3,599 for a 5 KG box of Sindhri and Rs. 2,000 for a 5 KG box of Langro or Sohnaro. Market prices vary widely by variety, grade and how many hands the fruit has passed through, and the cheapest box on a marketplace is usually cheap for a reason.
Which Pakistani mango is best for export?
It depends on the route and the transit time rather than on the variety alone. Fruit for a long flight is picked firmer than fruit for the local market, which changes which varieties behave well. Ask us for the market you are buying into and we will tell you what we would send.
How should I store Pakistani mangoes when they arrive?
Take every mango out of the box straight away and lay them in a single layer somewhere cool and dark, never stacked in a bowl. They will not ripen at the same rate. Move each one to the fridge as it comes good rather than waiting for the whole box, and never refrigerate one that is still hard, because cold stops the ripening and it does not restart.
Can I buy Pakistani mangoes outside Pakistan?
Yes, during the season, mostly flown in. Availability varies by market and year. We supply importers and distributors directly.
How do I know I am getting the variety I paid for?
Check the month first, because it is the single most useful filter and Sindhri in August is not Sindhri. Then check the shape: long and tapering is Sindhri, round and plump is Chaunsa, small is probably Anwar Ratol. An even gold with no red blush points to Sindhri. If a seller can tell you the district the fruit came from, that is already better than most; if they can name the orchard, better still.