It has been estimated that postharvest losses of mango fruit in a number of developing nations in Africa and Asia are as high as over 50%, particularly during the primary harvest season. These countries are located in both Africa and Asia. In developing economies, food processing businesses on micro, small, and medium scales play an important economic role in the processing of a variety of healthy food products as a sustainable way to reduce postharvest losses and food waste, extend the shelf life of food, boost food security, and contribute to national gross domestic product. Processing mango fruit into a variety of goods that can be stored for a longer period of time makes the seasonal fruit more accessible to customers throughout the entire year.
Mango is the most popular fruit globally and is mainly famous as an Asian apple among people. There is a rich history of mango in Sri Lanka since the kingdom era. Based on common sense, the mango fruit supply chain is a complex system involving various actors in different activities, from harvesting to marketing. However, in most developing countries, mango is small and medium-scale farming. Most of the mango trees can be identified at the home garden level. Farmers don't prune and maintain their mango plants.
They
get the harvest and sell to the middlemen because they have comparatively minor
yields and difficulty selling in the marketplace without getting support from the
middlemen or traders. This situation creates more demand for mango
collectors in the mango fruit supply chain to fulfil the current gap. Modern mango fruit supply chain management practices provide how to operate the whole supply chain practices from harvesting to the end of the packhouse operations.
Mango processing villages are the most popular concept in Sri Lanka when focusing on the mango post-harvest process. Generally, 95 % of mango go to the
market through these mango fruit processing villages. We know it is interesting
for you to learn more about the novel concept. It is the most straightforward
concept of gathering all mango fruit supply chain actors into one unit. This concept's hidden reason is that most mango fruit
collectors live in a similar geographical area as a village—such kinds of
villages spread throughout the country as a scat. Generally, through studying
mango collectors' roles, we can get more knowledge, skills, and experience for
the community to start new agro-based entrepreneurship.
The
routine life of mango fruit collectors.
The mango collectors go around the country using the harvesting pattern to collect the home garden and orchard mango. They commonly discuss with owners, get the whole mango trees, collect mangos, and transport them to their living areas. So this mango collecting process is a group effort, typically engaging a few or more workers to manage the mango, field packaging and transport to the packhouses. Generally, they use plastic crates for packing and transporting mango from one place to another.
Pack
House Operation in Mango processing village.
This
is a complex process. More activities are involved in producing high-quality
fresh ripen mango to hand to consumers in the marketplace.
In
packhouse operation, mango should be pre-sorting to remove the low-quality
fruits. Afterwards, the mango moves to the ripening chamber to artificially induce the ripening process.
Generally, when the ethylene hormone concentration increases, matured mango fruit ripens naturally, called the natural ripening process. This ripening process can be stimulated artificially in the ripening chamber's side as a healthy artificial ripening process. This is a novel method in the post-harvest sector and booming popularizing in the fruit industry.
The
next step is sorting and grading. Here, ripened mango should be checked to remove
the disease-infected fruits, mechanically damaged fruits, etc. Then high, quality ripened mango can be selected to move the marketing.
The sticker can be fixed on high-quality mango fruits to show the consumers high-quality, healthy ripened fruits.
Finally, ripen the fresh mango pack inside the corrugated boxes by mentioning all the quality improved process details. Then it is easier to sell in the market without any completions.
Entrepreneurship opportunities.
This concept is a novel one in the post-harvest sector in agriculture. In the modern era, drastically shift to healthy foods, mango is one of the world's most famous food items. Therefore, such novel concept is essential to produce high-quality fresh products. Finally, it is creating new agro-based entrepreneurship opportunities in the post-harvest sector.
Written By: Techno Journey