Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green was happy to announce that as of Thursday (April 22), Jamaica resumes exports of St Julian and East Indian mangoes to the United Kingdom after a seven-year hiatus.

While the momentous occasion of Jamaica’s 4,000-kilogram shipment from Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport was celebrated, local users of Twitter were stunned at the ‘real name’ of the popular Julie mango.

So shocking was the revelation that Julie and its ‘government name’ began trending on Twitter—both becoming trending topics well into Friday morning, a fact that wowed Minister Green.

“Jah know Twitter undefeated… St. Julian fully a trend lol,” he chuckled.

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It’s safe to say Jamaicans were not ready for this dose of truth, as even Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith waded into the debate.

“I am sorry, but that is just not acceptable. Please put me in the room where the conversation needs to be had. This is how it will go: “The name is Julie. End of Story.” I mean really,” Johnson Smith replied.

Initial shock aside, many across the Jamaican timeline were pleased at the latest developments, calling the renewed exports a great way to get the national brand out there.

In a statement, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, said the shipment, which contained 320 boxes of Julie and 172 boxes of East Indian mangoes, is the second bound for the UK this month.

Jamaicans in the UK, reacting to the news and eager to take up the shipment, were more concerned which shops would market the mangoes as the domestic fruit was ‘sub-par’ when compared to those grown on the sun-kissed Caribbean island.

There is truth in Green’s October 2020 statement that Jamaica-grown mangoes had huge international appeal, particularly in the United States, Canada and the UK—the island’s three biggest export markets.

Jamaica exported some 12,000 pounds of mangoes to the US in June 2019, after receiving clearance from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) four years earlier.

Then-minister JC Hutchinson noted in a 2019 Jamaica Information Service (JIS) interview, said that the country has, for some time, been exporting mangoes to Jamaica’s three largest diaspora markets.

In 2013, Jamaica exported 654,954 kilograms of mangoes to Canada, and 691,206 kilograms in 2014.

Jamaica currently exports 419,919 kilograms of mangoes to Canada annually, Hutchinson indicated.