Food
JAM | May 3, 2021

First Jamaican mango shipment a sign of things to come: Agriculture Minister

/ Our Today

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Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green (right), is being shown a sample of the mangoes being shipped to the United States by Plant Quarantine Officer Solangie Johnson at the Sangster International Airport on April 30.

By Fernando Davis

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green says Jamaica is on a mission to be a major supplier of fruits and other agricultural entities to the world.

Speaking to reporters on Friday (April 30), following the shipment of some 1,100 boxes of East Indian and St Julian mangoes to the United States from the Sangster International Airport, Montego Bay, St James, marking the first shipment to that country for the 2021 mango season,  Green said that this was only a preamble of things to come.

The Sangster export was also hot on the heels of over 4,000 kg of mangoes to the United Kingdom on April 22, making it the second of such shipment to a European ally, and for Jamaica to make significant inroads into two of the biggest markets in the world.

“We are on a mission to take the best fruits in the world to the world.”

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Floyd Green

“This year’s exports to both markets are expected to surpass that of last year,” Green pointed out.

“USA it’s your turn! Our first shipment of mangoes for this season… to that market is off! One thousand one hundred boxes amounting to over 5,000 kg of mangoes. We are on a mission to take the best fruits in the world to the world.”

 In the meantime, Green said that the growth of Jamaica’s mango-export programme should result in an increase in this year’s overall export output.

“We are very happy to see the growth of the programme, as we are doing over 1,000 boxes of mangoes to the US, and this is just the first shipment for the season. We have moved tremendously from when we had only two registered farmers to now having over 18 farmers that are registered, plus we had only one registered exporter and now we have nine exporters, and we are looking to see tremendous growth in this season,” he further added.

100,000lbs of mangoes sold in US

Jamaica resumed shipments of mangoes to the United States in 2019, shipping some 8,151 kilograms of the fruit to that country after having been out of that market since 1999. Between January and October 2020, it was reported that 100,000 pounds (45,359 kilograms) of Jamaican mangoes were sold in the United States.

Prior to the 2019 shipment, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) had given clearance for Jamaica’s mango exports in 2014.

Up to that time, Jamaica was exporting mangoes to diaspora markets in Canada and the United Kingdom, with 654,954 kilograms of mangoes being delivered to Canada in 2013, and another 691,206 kilograms to that country in 2014.

 Green, in the meantime, said he is optimistic that the construction of a hot-water treatment plant, which is slated to be completed during the current financial year, will help to open more doors for Jamaica in the mango-export market.

“The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has just approved Jamaica to construct a hot-water treatment plant,” he noted.

“What we expect is that through public-private partnership, we will construct that plant within this financial year, so that by next mango season, we should be doing more of the process here in Jamaica, and that will really open up mango exportation into the United States to a lot more mango farmers. We think that is a tremendous development and a wonderful opportunity for our exportation of mangoes as we continue to expand our export reach, and we continue to take our fruits, the best fruits in the world, to the world.”

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