Thailand has high potential exporting mangosteen. In Thailand, the area planted with mangosteen is about 57,000 hectares with the annual production of 200,000 tonnes. With this substantial amount produced, there is high potential for these fruits to be exported. The ban on export of fresh mangosteen to Japan was lifted in 2004 with the use of the Vapour Heat Treatment (VHT) method as a sanitary and phytosanitary measure. In this method fruits are subjected to temperature of 46°C for 58 minutes.

The best quality fruits are collected and graded from GAP (Good Agricultural Practice) farms which have been accredited by Department of Agriculture, Thailand. Selected fruits are sent to the factory first to be cleaned by air-gun blowing to remove contaminated insects and dirty particles. The fruits are then filled in crates, stacked up and loaded into VHT chamber to be treated by the regulation protocol for 4-5 hours. This is closely monitored by Thai and Japanese inspectors. After the fruits are cooled down well, they are packed in standard packaging boxes required from the buyers. The inspected fruits are transported to Japan either by air or ocean.

Fruit Packing Line		VHT Machine

The main problem experience with the first batch of 400 tonnes mangosteen for the Japanese market was the internal quality of the fruits such as gummosis, glassy and heat injury disorders. These disorders affected the sale volume in the following year when the buyers were not sure on internal fruit quality. To overcome these problems, each fruit has to be well selected and handled with care from farm to market, focusing the optimum period of fruit harvesting and in the final process, each fruit is also scanned to assure that they are not internally defective fruits before exporting to Japan. In addition to this it is important to educate the consumers how to handle and eat the fruit. With proper postharvest management throughout the supply chain, the export of Queen of Tropical Fruits can be rewarding, with the export market being sustained and the reputation of a high quality, delicious, safe and exotic fruit.

Accepted quality fruit		Reject scarred fruit		Reject cracked fruit		Reject gummosis fruit
Rejected glassy flesh				Rejected gummosis fruit

Jacketed fruits packed in corrugated paper box		Fruit internal quality check by electronic scanning