Weather Station
Its farm has a meteorological station with all the equipment necessary to record precipitation levels, ambient temperature, wind and relative humidity. Data is collected on a cumulative and on a continual basis. Soil temperature is measured at five different depths. The station also records the number of light hours per day. The data collected by the station is reported three times daily to the Nicaraguan Meteorological Institute and by its technicians in order to estimate the most appropriate harvest time, for irrigation management and for pest control for its mango trees and other crops.

The wealth of meteorological data at Mangosa is a key comparative advantage to other farmers. The experimentation program that has developed proprietary in-house technology for the production of mango is complemented by detailed Weather data that allow more reliable interpretation of experiment results.

Mango Harvest and Packaging Process
All its fruit processing is done within its farm. At present, the Packinghouse operates at full capacity for a period ranging from 60 to 90 days per year, processing and packing mangos for the export market. Its diversified products (Papaya and Asparagus) use the Packinghouse and cold rooms' installations during the remainder of the year. The harvesting of mango begins when a few ripe fruits have fallen and is carried out by hand.

Partial view of Mangosa,s HASA-certified Packing plant

Once the fruit enters the Packinghouse the field boxes are received and checked to verify that the product matches each client's request in terms of variety, color and size. Before the fruit enters the Packinghouse, Mangosa checks its pesticide application records (if any were made) to ensure that the product is FDA and USDA compliant. A minimum number of days needs to have elapsed since the last application of the pesticide in order to meet FDA and USDA requirements.

Once the latex has been removed from the fruit (the fruit exudes latex when removed from the tree), the fruit is set on the conveyer belt under a 6-row set of brushes that washes and cleans the fruit. The fruit glides under the brushes into a small tank of water in which, if necessary, a fungicide is applied, or it goes to the next set of brushes, which finish the cleaning process. Then, fruit is passed through a 3,000-gallon water tank containing 200 ppm of chlorine. Once the fruit comes out from the cleaning process, it enters a set of weighting cups in which each fruit is weighted and is graded by size and individually inspected before it is placed in plastic baskets containing fruit of homogenous size.

Grading and Packaging Mangoes According to Color,
size and variety under Stricty Hygienic Conditions

Quality Control of Graded Mangoes taking Place before
the Fruit Undergoes the Hot Water Treatment

Fruit is classified in accordance with norms established by the APHIS protocol for Hot Water Treatment based on Weight (i.e. larger/heavier fruits require to remain longer periods of time in the hot water tank).

The table on the next page summarizes the length of treatment time that fruit must undergo depending on their caliber/Weight:

700 Kg od selected Fruit Ready to Enter
the Hot Water Treatment Bath

Upon exiting the water tanks, the fruit is carried to the Resting/Cold Room No. 1, where Mangosa allows the fruit to rest for 12 to 24 hours at 70º F. This allows the fruit to recover from the high temperatures it was subjected to in the hot water treatment process. This is a quality control point for the Company in which Mangosa assesses damage to the fruit. Fruit that meets its quality standards moves on to the selectioning and packaging area.

Next, fruit is sent to the following station, where it is waxed, brushed and moved via conveyor belt to the selection and packing area. The hot water treatment will remove all the natural wax of the fruit, so this part of the process is essential for the proper presentation of the fruit in the market.

After waxing and brushing, the fruit moves to the packing line in which the fruit is in a continuous movement to provide the packing personnel with a better view of the fruit's shape, color and damage. The fruit is selected and packed into ten-pound boxes. Boxes are filled with different fruit sizes. The market accepts fruit ranging in size from 8 to 12, and in some cases up to size 14. In the process of selecting fruit for packing, stickers are placed on the fruit (each client has a sticker bearing his brand name).

Each packing person affixes a sticker to each box they pack that identifies them, allowing us to monitor packing and quality selection by packer. Packed boxes are placed on another conveyor that runs underneath the main conveyor that feeds the packing area. Packed boxes are delivered to the quality control area.

Quality control personnel ensure that all the fruit are of the same color and size, and that they are placed in the box according to the specifications provided by the buyer. In addition, its quality control staff randomly removes one box every 25 or 50 boxes from the line in order to keep a quality control record. Removed boxes are Weighted and inspected in order to ensure that the contents match the requirements of the buyer.

After passing through the quality control station, packed boxes continue in a conveyor to the palletization area, where they are placed on wooden pallets according to the size of the fruit and the variety. Mangosa packs 192 boxes per pallet and place 22 pallets per container for a total of 4,224 ten-pound boxes per container. Mangosa makes its own top quality pallets to exacting international standards. The quality of the pallet utilized is of critical importance to the Company, as it must withstand heavy loads in the course of shipment. Poor pallet quality may result in the rejection of a substantial portion of a shipment by the buyer due to poor fruit quality. Mangosa therefore uses top quality pallets.

Once a pallet has been assembled and the fruit boxes have been stacked on it, it is moved to the cold room number 2 or number 3. A forced air-cooling system is used to cool the fruit to 52ºF, the temperature at which the fruit is generally transported for export to the US or Europe . The transport temperature of the fruit may vary depending on the time it takes to reach its destination (which is a function of distance and shipping schedules) and the ripeness of the fruit. The forced air system ensures that all the fruit inside the boxes will have the same temperature. It generally takes 2 to 3 hours for the fruit to cool to the desired temperature. This system assures the Company that its fruit will reach its final destination with the right level of ripeness.

Once the fruit has reached the desired temperature, it is loaded into a refrigerat-ed container under the supervision of the USDA-APHIS inspector. Prior to loading the container, a checklist has to be cleared by the supervisor. The driver of the truck hauling the container has to sign a document in which Man-gosa specifies the tempera-ture of the boxes and the temperature of the pulp of the fruit ( Mangosa pro-vides him with the instru-ments to do this). Once the paperwork is done, the container is closed, sealed and the delivered to the port for export.

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