JAKARTA (Commodity Online ) : Indonesia has decided to intensify efforts to pressurize Japan to revoke its ban on mango imports from the country that has been in place for the past five years.

According to Indonesia’s agriculture ministry ,around 88 percent of mangoes in Japan were imported.



Philippines controlled almost 58 percent of Japan`s total mango imports with the rest coming from Mexico, Thailand and Taiwan.

Most varieties imported by Japan were Keitt, Hadden and Tommya Atkins from Mexico and Manila Super from the Philippines.

Since 2004 Japan had revoked its ban of Tommy Atkins imports from Brazil and also Alphonso, Kesar, Chausa, Banganapally, Malika and Langra varieties from India in June 2006.

Analysts said to increase Indonesian mango exports to Japan, Indonesia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (IJEPA) signed by the Indonesian president and the Japanese prime minister on August 20, 2009 must be strengthened.

Based on the cooperation Indonesia received compensation in the form of a Vapour Heat Treatment (VHT) for standardization of quality control for its horticultural products.

The VHT equipment is used for eradicating fruit flies on mangoes. Japan, the US, Europe, South Korea and other developed countries have imposed tight requirements for imports of tropical fruits including the fruit fly-free requirement.

The VHT from Japan is only a laboratory standard and has so far been put at the plant disturbing organism observatory agency (BBOPT) in Jatisari, West Java.

Demand for mango in Japan keeps increasing and is projected at around 20,000 MT. In 2002 mango consumption in Japan reached 10,675 MT and in 2006 it rose to 13,583 MT.

Indonesia actually had been able to penetrate markets in Europe and the US but the exports were still small such as to France totalling 2,324 kilograms, Germany 841 kilograms, the Netherlands 494 kilograms, Britain 2,275 kilograms and the US 3,299 kilograms.

Indonesia’s mango exports increased quite significantly in the past ten years. In 1999 they were recorded at 564 tons and in 2008 at 1,908 tons worth US$ 1,645,948.

Production in 2008 reached 1,81 million tons from 204,000 hectares of harvest areas. Indonesia is the world’s fifth largest mango exporter after India, Pakistan, China and Mexico.

The world’s biggest producer is India with total production reaching 13,50 million tons, followed by Pakistan with 4.71 million tons, China 3.75 million tons and Mexico 2.05 million tons.

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