10 Rai Of Mango

[tooninthai]

The g/f has been left 10 Rai of land currently planted with mango after the death of her father.

The bank is not interested in it as a guarantee towards raising funds as it has no house on it.

The surrounding area has mango trees too.

Currently the mangoes are simply given away to anyone who wants them as they are worth so little when all the other trees are fruiting and there is a glut of mangoes.

Apparently there is a lack of water in the area so that has to rule out many ideas.

A main road does front the land.

My understanding is that the nearest village is several kms away and the land is located about 35 kms from town.

Ideally she would like to sell the land but there is a distinct lack of interest in that. Building a house in the 'middle of nowhere' seems a crazy idea, especially as she has been left a plot of land nearer town which is ideal to build a house on.

What, then, would grow in that sort of area that would be at least profitable - if anything?

I would presume it would be a big task to dig up the trees and root systems too to start another project?

Any ideas?

Or would it be best to leave the land as it is unti a buyer might be found in the future?

Any sensible observations would be welcome.

TIA.

[WatersEdge]

Quick caveat...

I'm not a Mango farmer,

but am interested in this thread because two associates have large Mango orchards,

both facing the insurmountable obstacle of tending the trees,

then marketing in a glut.

Therefore both are idle, beautiful trees just out there.

Some observations:

In harvest glut, the local farm price drops to B1.00 / kg in the remote villages.

So many that the children stop stealing them.

ThaiVisa member slapout, learned by unplanned incident,

that if a mango tree is severely cut back just after fruit harvest,

then has the full year to recover,

and it bears fruit two weeks ahead of schedule the next season.

This puts you ahead of the market glut.

Goats love mango leaf.

They will trim your trees to 2 meters above the ground.

as well as graze the best grass and weeds from the orchard.

If everything else is grazed out during dry season, they will eat a little bark,

but not if they have other good choices.

There are different varieties of mango,

which bear at different times of year,

so if you graft the other types into your existing orchard,

you will get more crops on the same trees.

This displays my ignorance,

but recently I heard of trees that are "the three harvest kind."

Perhaps these trees were double grafted into the existing rootstock.

or perhaps there is a hormone treatment.

We hope someone who knows something steps in here.

Apparently the sour mango is most in demand.

A lady who knows fruit trees said that if a grower has the out of demand Mango trees,

then grafting is the obvious solution rather than destroying fine established trees.

The other direction to approach this problem,

is first to maximize your own yield with fertilizer, pruning, wrapping the immature fruit, etc.

It's much the same amount of labor, for a small or a large harvest.

It is labor intensive to wrap the fruit.

Then prepare to process your own fruit as well as buying the harvest glut around you.

The possible preserved forms are puree, dried, fruit leather.

A clear plastic sheet large drying area, with barriers to flies and ants

If you are ready to preserve the peel and seed byproduct into silage,

then you have good hog feed.

Roll Plastic sealing a concrete ring pod, 2 rings 0.80 meter high

makes a good silage enclosure,

which you can open in relatively small amounts.

Heavy plastic trash bags tied very tightly work fine if you have a puncture safe place to store them.

If there absolutely is no market, then the hogs will enjoy the entire mango,

stored as silage in the same way,

Imagine that mango flavored bacon?

A bit more involved,

Black Solider Fly will consume any garbage or excessive food source,

converting it to high protein maggot,

which is ideal chicken and fish food.

This works for not just mango...any rubbish food source.

They are out there in Thailand, no special effort to bring the flies in from afar.

The key is to convert the perishable fruit to a value added manageable form during the glut,

then put it to good use steadily through the year.

Just about every agriculture produce in Thailand has a slight variation of the same problem.

Processing, Marketing and Transport of a perishable product.

If you develop a preservation method for mango, you will be able to do other things as well.

Does a lack of water in the area mean that a simple well can't be drilled

or that no water is running visible above ground?

I've seen multiple small wells drilled very cheaply,

with only 2" PVC pipe as casing.

I think the four wells on one property were 15 meters deep for B3,000 each.

I'd prefer at least 6" pipe as casing,

but that's was offered with the tiny drill rig at hand,

and I must admit even the little wells produce a lot of water on a shallow water table.

At a Chiang Mai company I worked at, we hired a more substantial driller for a 97 meter deep well, 6 inch casing, for B100,000

If you have the only well in town,

you are then able to sell water to your surrounding orchard owners.

[rfukata]

pickled mango, dried mango (as in dried fruit) are favorites to specific asian countries.

a little research may give you some opportunity for export possibilities.

[nam-thip]

Can you give me the location of the land, what sort of paper is attached to the land, maybe a photo or two would help and the selling price.

Edited February 14, 2010 by nam-thip

[Gary A]

We have/had ten rai of mango and somo trees. It is a kilometer or so from our home. All the fruit is stolen before we can pick it. It had a small pond that we enlarged, so no more water problems. There are now about two rai of rice paddy and about a rai of sugar cane planted from sugar cane left over from planting the other farm. I didn't have the heart to take out the rest of the trees. The three rai of trees that we took out were cut up by charcoal makers and the tops piled and burned. Apparently mango trees make good charcoal. An excavator (Macro) was used to take out the trees and build the rice paddies. If electricity ever gets that far from the village, we may build a house there. That was one of the reasons to save the rest of the trees.

[tooninthai]

Thanks for the input and especially to WatersEdge for such a detailed and informative reply.

There are no bore holes currently in the vicinity and that is one of the main problems. Though I will go further into that with the g/f, but I am led to believe that is the reason for so many Rai of Mango in the area.

Gives me food for thought - if you will forgive the pun.

[Nignoy]

Just a thought, we had the same problems with a glut of mangoes on the sunshine coast in queensland, we harvest the fruit as normal, peel it slice it or pulp it, deep freeze it in different size portions , sell it in the off season on caboolture market, even some of the school tuckshops started to buy it as a healthy snack or drink for children, we were quite surprised, the business as a going concern helped to sell our house as well,

[sinbin]

Quote from op:-"The bank is not interested in it as a guarantee towards raising funds as it has no house on it". Please tell me as to how millions of Thai borrow money from banks, evey year, using their land papers and having no house on the land. The land is the valuable asset, not the house.

[Sunfarmer]

G'day

Gee I'd kill for 10 rai of mango trees.... You've been given sensible advice here especially the suggestions about adding value to the crop... drying preserving etc.... Under no circumstances would I even think of removing these trees. They are a valuable asset and represent a serious investment of time and labour and money. If you are so keen to get rid of them, I'd sell the farm to a neighbour.

You are selling into the wrong market. Yes this happens in Australia too, when you've got mangoes, everyone's got mangoes.... they become a traffic hazard! So the trick is to sell them where people don't have mangoes. Think about an export co-op. Or buy them up from your neighbours. Look at the middle east.

Here's some advice from another angle. Mangoes do best with a clear distinct dry season. Second, irrigation is causing enormous problems in NE Thailand ... which essentially floats on a sea of salt. Know a lot about your soil and your water before you think about. Removing your trees will raise your water table. This is one of the primary causes of salinity in Thailand. In other words. You have a great working asset. Work out what to do with it. But don't destroy it.

Peter

[SiamPower]

10 Rai Mango bring ca. 150.000 - 350.000 baht per Year.

Maby you can sell by www.alibaba.com

[tooninthai]

The family struck a deal last week over the Mango, for sugar cane land. So that now solves that problem, but thanks for all the advice

[CHLEE]

Dear Toonithai,

Please do let me know the variety of mango you are having as we, Eng Hin Thai, buys a lot of mangoes for local and export consumption. My Company based in Bangkok. If you are interested, please do contact me.

Thank you.

Regards,

Lee

[slapout]

Mango is like any fruit tree it requires care and maintenance. Sweet, ripe mangoes have been selling for 25 baht/kilo which I consider a good farm gate price. We have mango trees in CM which set fruit on half the tree and when that fruit is half developed the other half bloom and sets. Over the past two months we have picked close to 70+_ kilo/tree. The double bloom did not happen until the trees were about 8 or 9 year old and have continued to do this for the past 4 year. The wife does the pruning (Thai style with machete) while the second crop is still on the tree. Wife's watering habits may contribute, as they are in garden around house and get frequent squirting.

When mango glut hit CM she found out that she could ship boxed mangoes north 130 kilometer via local transport, for 40 baht per 30 kilo box, and her mother would sell from the house for the 25 baht/kilo. Many mango orchards seem to pick green all at the same time and prices seem to be kept at rock bottom by the buyers for this product.The ripe when ready will have several vendors ready to take what is available. Wife even gases to hasten ripening the fruit.

I am surprised someone would consider ripping out healthy trees as I have watch several mango orchards planted over the past 4 or 5 years.