Bani, located in the province of Peravia, is a pioneer in the trade and export of these mangoes in the Dominican Republic and its Mango Expo Fair, which it has held for several years, confirms it as a pioneer in this sector.
The provinces of Bani, Peravia, San Cristobal, Azua, San Juan, Barahona, and Neyba account for 85% of the production of mango for export.
In recent months, however, El Seibo, the impoverished province in the East that mainly subsists from livestock and sugar cane, has embarked on the production and export of mango.
Rancho Higuera, a farm located three kilometers away from the center of capital city, in Higüera, has about 9,000 plants of mango that produce 3.9 to 4 million mangoes a year, which the producer exports to England, and more than 2,500 new plants to be planted.
Ramón Humberto Jarvis, the owner of Rancho Higuera, said he began producing mangoes 10 years ago, but that he only produced them for local consumption back then. Since March this year, Rancho Higuera has sent 4 containers with 35,000 units of Keitt mango grafts for export to England.
Jarvis realized that production was improving and took a loan of 350,000 pesos to start marketing his product. He sought expert advice and is proud to say that his farm is a pioneer in this area.
"We decided to standardize our plantations: we adapt them with the best treatments, visited the Mango Fair in Bani and realized that the producers were unable to produce 40% of the demand that the countries they sold to required," said Jarvis.
Then, they requested accreditation from GLOBAL GAT (Global Agricultural Trading), an entity that regulates international standards in the application of agricultural inputs in product exporting countries.
Data and projections
In the last two months, Rancho Higuera has shipped four containers to England. The company plans to export a total of 35 containers to that destination this year, each with 4,455 boxes of mango. So far the company has made 45 million pesos in profit. In addition, they will plant 2,500 new plants.
The company expects to have its own export processing plant in three years so that it can start exporting without intermediaries. Currently, there is a company in Santiago that assists them in adapting, preparing, and packaging the mangoes for export.
The mango's induction - the time it takes to prepare the mango since flowering to harvest- begins in November and comes to an end in April.
Mango production can last about three years from the moment the tree is planted to its first harvest, depending on how it's treated. A tree can yield 60 to 70 units of mangoes, a number that grows as the years pass.
Agronomist Alberto Avila, who is giving production advice to Rancho Higuera, is optimistic and says that El Seibo will reach the production level that Bani has in the not too distant future. In recent months production in Bani has declined because of the rains and because some producers have lost up to 2,000 trees that they mishandled at induction.
Source: metrord.do