Business

Mango exports not affected by pandemic

October 1, 2020 10:46 am

Ba mango farmer Penaia Nalulu

Mango exports have not been affected by the current pandemic as the demand is still high.

With Fiji currently into its mango season, farmers have been supplying to exporters since July.

Ba mango farmer Penaia Nalulu says at the beginning of last month, the exporters have done four picking at his mango farm which has 30 trees.

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Nalulu says from his farm, they usually pick the Fiji mango, the parrot mango and the peach-mango.

The 51-year old says whatever is leftover from the farm is sold in Suva and he never sells at the Ba Market as other vendors have mangos.

Nalulu says money earned this year from selling mangos have greatly assisted his family during this pandemic.

Another Ba mango farmer Mohammad Fariyaz says he has supplied at least 7 tones since last month to Deans Marketing.

“As soon as they start fruiting then they come and spray and start picking.”

Fariyaz says he has at least 100 mango trees and they are all solely for exports.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fiji supplies most of its mangos to New Zealand but also exports to Australia, Canada and the US.

Approximately 15 to 20 tons of mangos are exported in a week.

Exporters buy these mangos from farmers in crates, and one crate is roughly 23kg.

Fiji has five different varieties of mangoes which are juicy mango, parrot mango, peach mango, Fiji mango and the hybrid ones.