A new Venezuelan member has joined the International Mango Organization.

Over the last years, the membership of the International Mango Organization (IMO) has grown to 823 members. Recently, Carlos Vera, the mango grower and exporter from Venezuela, has joined the team. 

Will Cavan, the Executive director of IMO, comments that he was pleasantly surprised to learn that there was still one group left alive after all of the economic troubles in Venezuela. Back in the days, the country used to be an important mango supplier, which filled a gap in production between South America and Mexico.

The farm Agropecuaria La Gloria, which belongs to the family of Carlos Vera, is concentrated on 500 hectares of land between Anzoategui and Monagas, close to El Tigre. They are proud to own the GlobalGap certification.

Mr. Vera commented: “Getting the product out of Venezuela has been really complicated the last few years due to lack of planes and ships as a consequence of the terrible political situation.”

The activity of the company. Currently they export from their farm but have also reached agreements with smaller producers strategically located in the central-northern region of the country in Aragua. This puts them closer to the main highways, ports, and airports. 

They mainly focus on cultivation of Haden, Ataúlfo, Keitt and Tommy Atkins varieties of mangoes. However, they have diversified to other products like bananas, pineapples, avocados and other seasonal fruits setting bases in countries such as: Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Colombia.

The company exports mainly to the UK and Spain. Soon the group will begin air shipments to the European market.

“What we hope to accomplish is to not let the export industry from Venezuela disappear. It has been difficult to do, and it gets more difficult every year. Nonetheless, we have big plans in Venezuela and we hope to carry them out in the near future”, concluded mr. Vera.