Another disappointing year for mango growers.

[Grumpy John]

Every one gets to share some of the pain this season!   The buyers from across the border are nowhere to be seen!   So it's "All quiet on the Western front"  and the Northern and the Eastern.  The biggest hurt is the loss of Vietnamese buyers.  Who normally buy Khiaw Sowoei mangoes in Big quantities.  And what do Tik and John have by the ton...both Khiaw Sowoei and Mun Felun!  I said to Tik maybe we should cut up the mangoes and pickle/bottle them.  Or make alcohol, rubbing of course,  as there is a big demand for alcohol at the moment.   Once I got the smile I knew I was in for 5 minutes of why we shouldn't!  Oh well, I guess if they all fall on the ground at less the bugs will get a good feed!  ????

[liddelljohn]

Im eating all the ones that grow on my girlfriends farm

[Airalee]

Don’t know where the mangos come from that are in the tesco here in BKK, but my gf won’t buy them anymore as they are rock hard and don’t ripen properly...similar to the avocados.

[CGW]

1 hour ago, Grumpy John said:

And what do Tik and John have by the ton.

We don't have them by the ton, but we do have a lot this year for some reason!

Hope you manage to find a buyer, they are supposed to make excellent compost! ???? 

[farmerjo]

Least a grain cash crop,if you have on farm storage can be stored till the market picks up.

Feel for you GJ with the work and baht that goes in to produce quality fruit.

Mangoes are not something you can change to value add in a second because of the bulk involved.

Wish you luck.Maybe could thin a few trees as the wood would be good for being used in a smoker? to get through.

[billd766]

We have about 6 trees worth but the unripe fruit is just falling to the ground as we have no main water supplies and rely on the fire truck from the tessaban for water deliveries. I give the trees about 5 minutes of water twice a week in the evenings and I save all the washing up water in a bowl and dump that on as many trees as I can.

 

We have a couple of coconut trees in the front of the house and a couple of times in the last week one of the big fronds has just fallen to the ground. If one of them hits you, you will have a serious headache.

[Grumpy John]

On 3/11/2020 at 6:15 PM, billd766 said:

We have about 6 trees worth but the unripe fruit is just falling to the ground as we have no main water supplies and rely on the fire truck from the tessaban for water deliveries. I give the trees about 5 minutes of water twice a week in the evenings and I save all the washing up water in a bowl and dump that on as many trees as I can.

 

We have a couple of coconut trees in the front of the house and a couple of times in the last week one of the big fronds has just fallen to the ground. If one of them hits you, you will have a serious headache.

Washing up water in a bowl...sounds funny but I used to do the same thing  years ago back in Oz.  We also used the shower water by unscrewing the cover on the elbow of the drain pipe and inserting a hose.  Water was delivered by an extortionist who thought he was God....until the council piped water to our village...Then he disappeared!

[fruitman]

I think it's worth to try pickling the keo sawoey mango's....those can be delicious when green and crispy. Falang mun isn't nice imo.

 

 

[Grumpy John]

3 hours ago, fruitman said:

I think it's worth to try pickling the keo sawoey mango's....those can be delicious when green and crispy. Falang mun isn't nice imo.

 

 

We have been looking at all options.   Unfortunately we haven't come up with anything useful.  Plus we are not set up to value add.  If we pick the green mango's, wash them, section them, sun dry them and vacuum bag them.....where will we sell them?  A lot of markets are closed.  Certainly not around here in mango central.  Plus we don't have enough tables,  or plastic tubes for a vacuum bagger. One Bright note was a buyer came and took 700kg of #4 and goldies off our hands....but the price was 10 baht for A grade and 7 baht for B.  Less than half normal price!   Still have 3 ton of bagged mangoes on the trees. 

[IvorBiggun2]

On 3/11/2020 at 6:09 PM, farmerjo said:

Maybe could thin a few trees as the wood would be good for being used in a smoker?

Bad advice. Mango wood is toxic and shouldn't be used in a smoker or be inhaled when burning. 

 

 

[fruitman]

3 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

We have been looking at all options.   Unfortunately we haven't come up with anything useful.  Plus we are not set up to value add.  If we pick the green mango's, wash them, section them, sun dry them and vacuum bag them.....where will we sell them?  A lot of m arkets are closed.  Certainly not around here in mango central.  Plus we don't have enough tables,  or plastic tubes for a vacuum bagger. One Bright note was a buyer came and took 700kg of #4 and goldies off our hands....but the price was 10 baht for A grade and 7 baht for B.  Less than half normal price!   Still have 3 ton of bagged mangoes on the trees. 

I know that the taste of green keo savoey differs a lot but in the West they have (or at least i have) never seen them...shipping them green is not possible i guess but pickled or canned might be possible...if you go to a market in Singapore/Malaysia you'll see loads of pickled mango's there...i admit i never tried them because they are kept in large open bowls and that doesn't look hygienic. But green keo savoey can be very nice, i bet pickling them should work one way or the other.

 

If i just see that here in BKK i pay 70 baht for a small can of blackened (not naturally black) olives from spain then the Europeans can sure pay a good price for a can/pot (pot is better) of pickled green mango's from Thailand me thinks.

[Chazar]

On 3/11/2020 at 5:13 PM, liddelljohn said:

Im eating all the ones that grow on my girlfriends farm

I wouldnt trust any Mangos  but my own red variety, 3  other  types also available, limited  stock so buy now

[Grumpy John]

2 hours ago, Chazar said:

I wouldnt trust any Mangos  but my own red variety, 3  other  types also available, limited  stock so buy now

And what price are you asking? All 4 are known as what Varieties?   

Edited March 24, 2020 by Grumpy John
Smelling

[fruitman]

17 hours ago, Chazar said:

I wouldnt trust any Mangos  but my own red variety, 3  other  types also available, limited  stock so buy now

Is this the 'new' namdocmai si muang variety? How do they taste?

 

Myself i'm tired of namdocmai because they are overly sweet and have only one taste which is sweet sweet sweet.

 

I love the good green mango's like mun kun si or keo savoei but there's also a lot of difference in how these taste , depending on where they have been grown and fertilized or picked at the right moment. Those have a different flavor in every single piece which i like..

[Grumpy John]

Khiaw Savoei are great ripe no doubt about it, but I need a big hit of sweetness everyday and #4's hit the spot!  Si Tong are OK and I do like the slightly less sweet citrus taste of R2E2's.  Now you maybe thinking I  am a sugar freak....which I was but I  have cut a lot of cane sugar out of my diet. Went from 102kg to 91kg just by cutting out bread,  a lot of pasta and a lot of sugar.  Oh,  and reduced salt.  Going from salted butter to no salt butter was a challenge.  Back on Oz I used to eat lots of mango's.....nothing has changed here! 

[fruitman]

1 hour ago, Grumpy John said:

Khiaw Savoei are great ripe no doubt about it, but I need a big hit of sweetness everyday and #4's hit the spot!  Si Tong are OK and I do like the slightly less sweet citrus taste of R2E2's.  Now you maybe thinking I  am a sugar freak....which I was but I  have cut a lot of cane sugar out of my diet. Went from 102kg to 91kg just by cutting out bread,  a lot of pasta and a lot of sugar.  Oh,  and reduced salt.  Going from salted butter to no salt butter was a challenge.  Back on Oz I used to eat lots of mango's.....nothing has changed here! 

I don't know the #4 namdocmai, here they sell the gold one, the green (yellow-green) one which is sweeter, and namdocmai mun they huge one. So is #4 the green one because gold is the si thong?

 

I don't care much for r2e2, then i like a ripe keo sawoei more.

 

Yes we also try to eat less sugar, a sweet mango is a sugarbomb...but we have pasta today and tomorrow! With much cheese.

 

And real butter is always much better than what the thai bakeries use, shortening or that margarine in a can...i can't believe that's any good for a person. But yes i'm also 91 now and that's fat for me...so something has to go out of my diet soon...

[Grumpy John]

#4 translates to Bur Si.  Slightly smaller than Si Tong and yellow in colour as opposed to yellow/gold. The garbage they call butter is mostly margarine made from huge quantities of palm oil.   Butter blend is almost as bad.  The wife suggested I make my oats and chocolate muffins out of Thai butter...the difference in taste was notible...in a bad way!  I know it hurts the wallet paying for real butter,  and cheese but the exchange rate will get better and then I will feel better!  Everyone back home used to think Thai food is healthy food so I  took a picture of the MSG section in Makro and the display of margarine in plastic bags and now a lot of people are up to speed on how healthy Thai food is not!  I think my health jumped several points when we left Pattaya and came to the village where the wife does most of the cooking. 

[Grumpy John]

Well a buyer came and bought some #4 (Bur si)  mangoes.  Two thirds were considered 2nd (B Grade) or down grade (for sauce, jam or processing). A grade 8 baht/kg, B grade 4 baht/kg and 2 baht for the rest.  Some A grade are now B grade even with the smallest mark.   How times have changed!  

[Evolare]

On 4/1/2020 at 11:13 AM, Grumpy John said:

Well a buyer came and bought some #4 (Bur si)  mangoes.  Two thirds were considered 2nd (B Grade) or down grade (for sauce, jam or processing). A grade 8 baht/kg, B grade 4 baht/kg and 2 baht for the rest.  Some A grade are now B grade even with the smallest mark.   How times have changed!  

John,

they are opportunists that offer crazy low like that. Sounds almost the way they hit papaya farmers 2 years ago offering them 2.5baht/kg. At that point we helped an entire groups of our customers to sell it in bulk directly to a canning factory for 10baht/kg this year before covid they where selling at 12.2baht/kg and we also helped connect their group to one of the largest som tum restaurant chains in Thailand they are still delivering too both cutting out the middleman. 

 

A friend of ours exports loads of fruit and vegetables to other countries in the region last I talked business with him he said they were short on supply on organic mango for export to Singapore. But I dont know what the current situation is right now. Did you grow organic or conventional? 

[Grumpy John]

33 minutes ago, Evolare said:

John,

they are opportunists that offer crazy low like that. Sounds almost the way they hit papaya farmers 2 years ago offering them 2.5baht/kg. At that point we helped an entire groups of our customers to sell it in bulk directly to a canning factory for 10baht/kg this year before covid they where selling at 12.2baht/kg and we also helped connect their group to one of the largest som tum restaurant chains in Thailand they are still delivering too both cutting out the middleman. 

 

A friend of ours exports loads of fruit and vegetables to other countries in the region last I talked business with him he said they were short on supply on organic mango for export to Singapore. But I dont know what the current situation is right now. Did you grow organic or conventional? 

Hi Evolare, conventional grown mangoes.  We have green mango varieties Mun Felun and Khieo Sawoei on the trees but we running out of time to do anything.  I am eating the last of the #4 and Gold mangoes but at 3 or 4 a day, my limit,  many will go off before I can get to them.