The Green Thai
Mangoes
Scientific
Name: Mangifera
indica
Family:
Anacardiacea
Here in Australia, we view the
mango as a fruit to be eaten when soft and ripe, dripping with fragrant
juice.
In
parts of Asia, particularly Thailand, selected mangoes are more often
eaten green as "mamuang mun", which translates as "delicious green
mango". Up to the present time, the Australian/Asian community have
been largely unable to satisfy their appetite for superior Asian
green-eating cultivars, as the only mango you're likely to find in the
greengrocers is a Bowen, also known as Kensington Pride mango. The
Kensington Pride mangoes make up more than 90% of the mangoes grown and
sold in Australia, and are also well-accepted on the export market.
There
are two main Thai varieties available in Australia at present, "Keow
Savoey" (pronounced - Cow SarWay) and Nam Dokmai (Nam Dok-My). Keow
Savoey is the premier green-eating fruit of Thailand. It is delicious,
being somewhat similar to a crisp, juicy, aromatic, granny smith apple.
Peeled with a vegetable peeler and eaten out of hand, it is utterly
delicious.
In Thailand, Nam Dokmai is not eaten green, but is
the preferred ripe-eating fruit. It is certainly delicious when ripe -
sweet, aromatic, creamy and completely fibreless. In Australia, it has
evolved that green Nam Dokmai are eagerly sought by South Vietnamese.
Australian/Asian buyers have previously bought a mixture of varieties
as green-eating fruit, but it would appear now that Nam Dokmai and Keow
Savoey are the preferred types.
Landholders considering entering the green-eating mango industry should
consider the following advantages:
1.
Very little crop loss to fruit fly, birds, or flying foxes, as the
fruit is picked green mature and is therefore less attractive to these
pests.
2. Excellent price - Asian buyers are currently
(1994-1995 season) paying $2 per kilo for green Nam Dokmai fruit. These
same buyers are keenly awaiting availability of Keow Savoey fruit in
commercial quantities and anticipate the price will be at least equal
to that offered for Nam Dokmai.
Although Australian commercial
plantings of Nam Dokmai and Keow Savoey are limited, they are known to
bear from Cape Tribulation (north of Cairns) to Nambour (southeast
Queensland), also at Walkamin and Mareeba on the Atherton Tablelands
and Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales.
Brooks, also known
as "Brooks Late" is also a variety worthy of consideration, as it is
the last cultivar to mature, and is therefore available long after the
seasonal glut of Kensington Pride mangoes is finished.
Brooks is
a heavy, consistent cropper, bearing green-yellow fruit with sweet and
juicy orange flesh, and could be of importance in the hospitality
industry as a prepared, sliced fruit. Brooks is resistant to
anthracnose and black spot.
It is meaningful to note the
importance of planting grafted trees rather than seedlings. Almost the
entire Kensington Pride industry is based on seedling trees and this
has led to enormous variation between one Bowen mango and the next. The
enormous number of Kensington Pride trees now bearing in Australia has
made it possible for buyers to become very fussy, and it would appear
that in future years this trend will continue.
Very good prices
are also being obtained for "R2E2", a cultivar developed at the Bowen
Horticultural Research Station and released in 1991. R2E2 fruit are
very large (800 grams average weight), yellow-green with an orange-red
blush. The flesh is lemon yellow, sweet and mild and very low in fibre.
Selective
planting of a range of different cultivars, including both early and
late varieties can extend the mango season up to 15 weeks' duration.
Back to
Mango
Page
|