By Antynet Ford

The United Kingdom has reopened its market to Kenyan mangoes, with the first Apple mangoes flagged off in Nairobi last week and now in U.K. stores, and a launch event by both governments held this week to stimulate new mango orders.

The vanguard consignment, exported by Gaute Kenya and imported by Gaute Fresh Global Trade Solutions UK, is the first shipment of Kenyan Apple mangoes to enter the UK market after years of phytosanitary restrictions linked to fruit-fly interceptions.

Speaking to FarmBizAfrica, Pauline Lamunu of Gaute Fresh UK, said she did not initially realise the order would mark the reopening of the UK market, but approvals and logistics moved faster than anyone anticipated once the order was accepted as a pilot order to reopen the trade.

Within a week, the approvals had been made and the two governments used the opportunity to launch the import of Mangoes to the UK, with an event for importers at Heathrow Airport’s terminal 4.

“When I received the Mangoes orders I thought we would receive them in January. We did not expect it to happen in a week. I knew everyone would be away for Christmas, but we were told that the consignment was going to come before December 20. The Mangoes were harvested on Thursday last week, the whole day. On Friday, they were taken to the Pack house and everything that is required there done.”

“Between 4pm and 8pm, the mangoes were delivered at JKIA for transportation and I was sent notification that the cargo would leave at 9am and on Saturday afternoon, the shipment arrived.”

“It was during the exportation that I was told that there was a ban of Mango export to UK from Kenya because of phytosanitary measures, while they improved the facilities, the treatment at the pack houses and put in place everything through a collaboration of the government and the private sector.”

“But between arrival and clearance, it took three to five hours and it was cleared at the customs and delivered to our warehouses and by 8pm the drivers had collected the shipment for distribution in the local UK retailers. It was seamless and when I reported, everyone was relieved because they thought it would be intercepted, as the UK system is very strict. It passed very well and nothing was detected. The mangoes are of good quality and they are looking good, so they used the opportunity to launch the apple mango market in the UK market.”

Pauline said the consignment was now in the retail chain and more mango orders had already been placed.

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“Sixty boxes have so far been distributed and are already on shelves at the Spitalfields market and more is expected to be distributed as we even take more orders to be delivered in January. We have other boxes which shall be distributed to retailers in south west London and others to the general public because we need their feedback.”

“The freight services played the services so well and our work was just to go and view the consignment after clearance. The January orders will be taken this afternoon and shared with our exporters in Kenya,” she said on 24th December.

She said Gaute deliberately sources directly from farmers.

“What we want to do is help the smallholder farmers in Kenya to share their products directly to us because middlemen really take a lot of their money and in the long run con them. With our partners in Kenya, this is going to be smooth even for the other products like vegetables and Avocado which we have already received orders too.”

The shipment targets premium fresh-fruit retail customers, supported by the Apple mango’s long shelf life of up to 30 days under controlled cold-chain conditions.

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