Myanmar: Mango exports declining
U Ko Ko Htwe, chairman of Myanmar Fruits and Vegetables Producers and Processors Association of Mandalay Region, said the year-on-year decline was more than 16,000 tonnes.
"Mango crops were reduced by bad weather and exports fell as a result," he said.
"We also need to educate farmers on better growing techniques if we want to increase our prices in future," he added.
U Ko Ko Htwe said that somewhere in the region of 34,000 tonnes of mango had been exported this year, earning $16 million. This is down from 50,000 tonnes last year.
The season is from April to July and the fruit is usually exported mainly to China, but also to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
There is potential to increase export trade, but first production needs to be increased, as does quality, especially when it comes to processing.
"We can only meet about 10pc of the demand because we don’t produce enough high-quality fruit. And some markets, such as Japan, only want fruit that has been carefully processed," said U Ko Ko Htwe.
He said that, at the moment, China, Singapore and Malaysia were buying the fruit from Burma and then processing according to international standards and selling it on.
He also said farmers should be careful not to pick the fruit until it is fully ripened.
U Ba Maung, spokesperson for the Ngwe Kant Kaw mango company in Mandalay, said farmers sometimes rushed to harvest their crops when they hear a good price was available.
"We pick our crop when we hear that prices are good. But when the fruit arrives in China and the buyers realise they are not fully ripe they immediately reduce the price for following shipments," he said.
He said buyers always have the upper hand in cases such as this. there are no cold storage facilities available and farmers can not afford to send the shipments back - therefore they will take whatever they are offered.
Source: mmtimes.com
