According to Peruvian exporters’ association APEM, China is a market with huge potential for mangos. If issues relating to costs and fresh keeping associated with long-distance transportation are solved, and mangoes are successfully marketed to the Chinese market, the total export volume of Peruvian mangoes is expected to increase by 30%. Peruvian website "Peru21" reported on February 24 that Juan Carlos Rivera, the general manager of APEM, stated that due to the high cost of air freight, mango exports are generally shipped to China by sea, which would take 35 days, and mangos aren’t able to keep fresh that long. "But once we can successfully ship high-quality mangoes to China, we will open an important market," he said.
Rivera pointed out that private companies have been looking for high-tech solutions to keep mangoes fresh for longer periods of time for long-distance transportation. The mango variety they are focusing on is the Kent. He said: "We have obtained all relevant quarantine approvals, but have not yet resolved the issues associated with transportation... We are testing various approaches to reduce the possibility of lowered quality when the fruit arrives and we hope to achieve positive progress this year.” Rivera said that if successfully marketed to China, the total export volume of Peruvian mangoes will increase by 30%. "We will set a record for mango exports. Last year's export volume was 237,000 tons." He said.
In addition, Rivera predicts that the export value of the current mango export season (from October last year to March this year) will be 207,000 tons, which is a decrease of 12% from the previous export season. Compared with other similar fruits, the decline in mango exports is not large. Rivera added: "As long as the export volume exceeds 200,000 tons, the income of producers will not be reduced.”