Eswatini Mango Fruit Farmers Produce Surplus

Manzini – The National Agricultural Marketing Board (NAMBoard) has affirmed that the country has recorded high levels of mango produce that is ripe and ready for market. This pronouncement follows a national surveillance conducted by the board in pursuit to determine how much production of the fruit, currently in season, had local farmers acquired.
In a press statement, NAMBOard CEO, Mr Siphephiso Dlamini highlighted that “through a national survey that we conducted, we have recorded approximately 2000 tonnes of mango produced by local fruit growers this season with roughly 70% ready for the market. This is in comparison to an average 122 tonnes per year that the nation would record in the previous years.” He mentioned that five varieties were produced, which are, the Tommy Atkins, Heidi, Kent, Sabre and sensational.
The rise in volumes is attributed to both the favourable weather conditions this year as well as the growth in number of farmers growing mangoes in the past year. More than 30 000 seedlings were bought and sold to farmers in the past 3 years through the 10 000 fruit tree per year sourcing project pursued by NAMBoard. Most of these have reached their first year of harvest this year.
A good section of local retailers and markets are evidently sourcing their fruit from local farmers. Under the continuing local sourcing initiative promoting buying of local famers produce. NAMBOard has increased her focus on this product line for now for now until it all moves to the market. Buyers are urged to find the famers with the ripe produce and anyone who may need such information is requested to contact Encabeni Fresh Produce Market offices.” Dlamini said.
“The amount of mango produce recorded this season has created an opportunity to explore the export market. A few of the commercial farmers are already exporting and this continues to be under development. NAMBoard is also assisting with some export of the high-quality produce to a few SADC markets including the RSA markets in Johannesburg Tshwane, Durban as well as Botswana.
Dlamini also mentioned that through this surveillance, they have noted that a lot of farmers are not registered under their Agricultural Marketing Information System (AMIS) which helps the organisation to make a better forecast of yearly product estimates, communication of exported produce to markets as well as ensuring advance securement of markets or linkages for farmers market. It’s for this reason that all farmers are urged to register on this platform to gain better market linkages benefits.