The latest issue of "Tropical Fruit News", March 1998, 32(3), includes an
article titled "Fairchild Tropical Garden's Tropical Fruit Program" (pgs.
7-9) that provides a summary of a recent visit to the mango industry in
South Africa, by Richard J. Campbell, Ph.D., of the Fairchild Tropical
Garden, Miami, Florida.

>From pg. 8  of the article:

"There has been a successful breeding and selection program within the
country directed towards their export markets in Europe...The emphasis in
the selection program has been on a highly-colored, mild-flavored mango
that is capable of storage up to four weeks. Productivity, disease
tolerance and freedom from internal disorders has been a major selection
priority."

I would comment that a 4 week storage period is a LONG time. My experience
with Florida mangos is that it takes about a week (or less) to ripen after
picking, and they last about a week, maybe a bit more, in the refrigerator
after they are ripe.

Of course the motivating factor to develop a mango that can withstand 4
weeks in storage, is (presumably) to support the transportaion (by ship) of
South African mangos to markets in Europe and elsewhere.

This illlustrates that nutrition can be less important than the basic logistics
of shipping to market, in plant breeding programs. (One will find similar
situations with other fruit breeding programs).

Tom Billings
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