Florida’s Changing Mango Industry

Mangos were introduced into Florida in the mid-19th century. During the early and mid-20th century acreage and production grew dramatically. Numerous institutional (USDA–ARS, UF/IFAS, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden) and private citizen mango introductions and seedling plantings resulted in numerous new and some superior mango cultivars (e.g., Haden, Palmer, Tommy Atkins, Keitt, Osteen, and Kent), which became the international trade standards. These mangos were primarily marketed through traditional packinghouses and handled in modern cold chain transport systems. The Florida mango industry had ~1600 acres by 1965; acreage peaked in 1989 at ~2900. However, destruction from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 left only ~1600 acres. Up until the implementation of the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, Florida was the dominate domestic mango supplier for the small U.S. market. After the implementation of NAFTA and other trade agreements, however, Florida producers could not compete with the volume of offshore production (Mexico, Peru, and Brazil) to meet demand by the U.S. chain store market. This resulted in further acreage decline to ~1100 acres by 2003. Fortunately, Florida has historically been a source for innovation and entrepreneurship in mango culture. This included organized (the Mango Forum, Zill High Performance Plants) and informal mango cultivar selection and research into cultural practices. Today, the Florida mango industry has transformed into a highly diversified industry that includes production for the mature green (raw/vegetable) market and the fresh, direct marketing of select high quality specialty mango cultivars.