JIZAN: With barely a week gone since the end of the ever-popular Parrotfish Festival in Jizan's Farasan Islands, the region now plunges headlong into its Mango Festival, which kicked off its seventh successive year of festivities Wednesday evening. Famous for its production of a variety of mangoes, Jizan holds the annual event principally to attract the business community and investors, but the public is also provided with an array of entertainment in the form of children's shows, displays of traditional folk practices, plays and all manner of competitions. The timing of the festival coincides with the seasonal harvest of the mango in Jizan, from where it is exported to all corners of the globe, although the fruit has only a recent history in the region. The introduction of the mango to Jizan began in 1982 when the Ministry of Agriculture planted the first trees of a variety of types brought from famous mango-producing nations such as Egypt, Sudan, the US and India. Prince Muhammad Bin Nasser, Emir of Jizan, said that further investment is sought, however. “There are a lot of mango farms whose owners seek investment to boost agricultural activity in the region,” Prince Muhammad said at the launch of the week
