The South African mango season started two weeks ago with the first Tommy Atkins and Zill fruit coming in from Hoedspruit in Limpopo and Onderberg in Mpumalanga.
It is likely to be an off year for the mango industry, after the record harvest of last year – 77,000t were produced by members of the South African Mango Growers’ Association (SAMGA), supplemented by informal mango production, often for the purposes of making a spicy condiment called atchar, bringing South Africa’s total mango crop to between 80,000t and 90,000t for the 2016/17 season.
As a result of a number of factors like the lingering effect of water shortages in the Onderberg area, the hail in the Hoedspruit area of about two months ago, coupled with the above-mentioned rest period after a bumper crop, SAMGA expects a drop of between 30 and 40% in mango volumes this year.
For the moment farmers are picking selectively but the big wave of Tommy Atkins– when there are between 50,000 and 60,000 equivalent of 2kg and 4kg cartons daily at the Johannesburg market alone – will peak during the third and fourth week of January.
Exports usually start from around week 51, when there are sufficient volumes.
For more information:
Pieter Buys
South African Mango Growers’ Association
Tel: +27 15 306 6240
Email: buyspb@gmail.com