Agência Brasil

Brasília - After 32 years of negotiations, the first shipment of mangoes is on its way to Japan. 1.5 tons of Tommy mangoes left for Tokyo on Wednesday (19). Nine more tons of the fruit will be available in Tokyo supermarket bins in the coming days. This year Brazil plans to export approximately five thousand tons of mangoes to Japan.

The first shipment departed from São Paulo on a 30-hour trip to Tokyo, with a stopover in New York. For these initial export shipments, Brazilian producers had to adapt to several Japanese requirements, ranging from the harvesting to the packing and including the logistics of mango distribution. Producers from Bahia will begin to export next week, when a three-ton cargo will be shipped from that state.

With the opening of the Japanese market, Brazilian producers view with enthusiasm the prospect of penetrating other Asian markets, such as China. "Japan will be a mirror for all the countries of the region. If our job is well done, we will conquer other markets in Asia. China is our next target," commented the technical advisor of the São Francisco Valley Association of Producers and Exporters of Horticultural and Grange Products and Derivatives (Valexport), Clemente Ribeiro, who recalled that the commercialization of mangoes is on the negotiating agenda of the mission that traveled to China at the beginning of this month.

According to Ribeiro, the volume of exports of the product will depend upon the commercial value established in Japan. "I believe that US$ 4 per kilo will be sufficient to sustain the market. If the price is lower, we may export less."

Translation: David Silberstein