Myanmar is exporting Seintalone mango to Singapore employing air and maritime transport, U Kyaw Soe Naing, general secretary of the Myanmar Mango Market and Technology Development Association (Mandalay).
Air cargo is the fastest mode of transportation yet shipping cargo by air is the highest. Maritime transport is cheaper but it takes about a week at least.
In the previous batch, shipping cargo by sea affected the quality and experienced market failure said U Kyaw Soe Naing.
Additionally, mango growers slashed agricultural input costs and caused quality degradation during this mango season. Therefore, some mangoes had postharvest diseases such as stem-end rot and black spot in the fruit, he continued.
“Myanmar has exported Seintalone mango for the last four to five years. The market is going well. However, the market has some challenges with maritime trade. A kilogramme of Seintalone mango was earlier offered S$6,” he elaborated.
The prevailing prices of Seintalone are worth up to 140 Yuan per 16-kilogramme basket in cross-border trade with China. For low quality, it fetches only below 100 Yuan.
Of about 200 mango varieties that originated in Myanmar, Seintalone, Shwehintha, Padamyar Ngamauk, Yinkwe, and Machitsu varieties are primarily grown. The foreign market prefers Seintalone varieties.
Ayeyawady Region possesses the largest mango plantation acres, having about 46,000 acres. Bago Region is the second-largest producer with 43,000 acres and Mandalay has 29,000 acres of mango. There are over 24,000 acres in Kayin State, over 20,400 acres in Shan State and over 20,000 acres in Sagaing Region, according to the association. —NN/GNLM
