The pipes are full of fruits to be collected, but the producers of the San Francisco Valley, between Pernambuco and Bahia, are already without who sell. Mango is the most exported Brazilian fruit
The pipes are full of ownership of Hidherica Torres, at Casa Nova, on the side of the Bahie of the San Francisco Valley.
The fruits that weigh on the branches already had a certain destination as soon as they are collected in the next few days: the United States. They had.
Tuesday (29/7), Hidherica was informed by the exported company that its sleeves would no longer have to leave American ports.
Since Brazilian products will have an additional rate of 50% to enter the United States from August 6, the sale, in practice, was impossible.
“We are running trying to see the possibility of sending to Canada or Europe,” says Hidherica.
“But I’m afraid that the sleeve is thrown on the floor and the tractor is approaching. However, the mud turns,” he adds.
Tuesday, the secretary of the United States trade, Howard Lutnick, said in an interview that some nameless products on American soil could have the zero import rate – among the examples, he mentioned the sleeve.
Already on Wednesday (30/7), President Donald Trump signed the decree that imposes the 50% rate on Brazil, but with different exceptions, including planes, orange and oil juice. The fruits, however, did not benefit.
Even before the rate entered into force, the San Francisco Valley, the main production and exporter of the fruit in the country, already feels the effects of the commercial war – and not only among the producers who export directly to the United States.
Small producers who provide the internal market and other countries already see the sleeves are blocked and the price collapses – as US production is already in the redirection phase, the Mango market begins to overwhelm the product.
With many offers, the price drops – to a level that sometimes does not even pay for production costs, the producers have said to the BBC News Brazil.
Buyers also offered less than $ 0.80 for the Tommy type kilo of José Nilton Gonçalves, a small manufacturer of Lagoa Grande, in Pernambuco. At the beginning of the year, he approached $ 6. “In this way, you can’t even take the expenses,” he says.
The leader of the Community Association of Farmers of Malhada Real, to Lagoa Grande, Cristiano Ferreira complete that all types of fruit are already affected, even those that would not go to the United States. “Everyone will already feel, from the Great to the Piccolo.”
Of the sleeves produced in the San Francisco Valley, 92% are exported, according to the Union Rural Producers Union in Petrolina (SPR), which represents the sector.
In 2024, Brazil exported 258 thousand tons of mango, earning 349.8 million dollars (1.95 billion dollars), according to data collected by the Embrapa manga observatory. This makes the manga the best -selling Brazilian fruit in the world.
The main destination is Europe, which represents about 80% of foreign sales during the year. About 15% go to the United States.
But production focused on production in the United States is more expensive and concentrated in three months a year, right now.
Americans often acquire sleeves from various countries according to the seasonality of the harvest. The Brazilian window is in August, September and October.
To sell to the United States, producers must mainly plant Tommy Manga, the favorite of the Americans.
In addition, they must pass through a series of inspections and certifications required, in particular on the presence of the fruit fly on the plantations and to be immersed in a 60 degree Celsius tank to eliminate the larvae. In practice, it is more expensive to produce for them.
“That is, it is difficult for the manufacturer to send this fruit to other markets. Furthermore, the volume at this moment for the United States is very large and is already causing low prices in national countries and in other countries,” says Jailson Lira, president of SPR.
The expectation of the San Francisco Valley in 2025 was to export 36.8 thousand tons of mango to the United States, in 2,500 containers that leave the ports of Salvador (Ba) and Pecém (CE) until October.
The revenue of this trade with the United States would be at the level of last year of 45.8 million dollars (R $ 255 million), according to the SPR forecasts.
‘I’m giving free manga’
The San Francisco Valley has large mango export companies, where the fruits pass through the health steps before export.
Many of these companies have their plantations. But in general, they end up buying the entire production of small and medium producers to satisfy the demand.
This makes the damage in the upper part of the chain (exporters) will be reflected, without delays, on the tip (farmers).
“If the sleeve has no way out, large companies will sell just what they already have, do not buy the rural producer Eduardo Nakahara, from Futecer, an export company more focused on the European market from the small and medium -sized manufacturer.
“And with the people who sell to the United States who send the sleeves in Europe, everyone is hit,” he adds.
Even with the preference that Europeans are not Manga Tommy, once in supermarkets, the customer usually does not cling to the type of fruit sold, explains Aleleska Martins, rural producer in Petrololina. The one with the most convenient ends up entering the cart.
Pernambuco produces Manga Keitt less sweet and smaller and sells for export to Europe, without presence in the US market.
But the feet in the 60 hectares of the family in Petrolina are already full of dead sleeve.
“We sold $ 6 per kilo this year, he was now fighting to sell to 0.80 cents,” he says.
According to producers, the important companies in Europe are canceling requests because they are already afraid of having “a deluge of mango from Brazil”.
Martins is competing against time because he has to start preparing the earth for the next harvest. That is, he pruits the trees, resting the earth and preparing the ground.
For this, he offered fruit to commercial partners, from market companies to companies that could collect the sleeves.
“I’m giving it for free to anyone who wants to take it, to clean my plant. Yet I’m not getting it,” he said Tuesday. He explains that companies justify that the cost to remove the sleeves from the foot will not be compensated by selling at such low prices.
In the land of Adilton de Lima, to Lagoa Grande, the problem is the same. “The market is full, so nobody wants our sleeve. He is walking to mature on his feet,” he says, a manufacturer of Palmer, a favorite of the Brazilian market.
The agronomist Gilson Dos Santos, producer and consultant in the sleeve sector in the San Francisco valley, explains that Brazil is unable to absorb so much mango that it will remain. And not even Europe, since “other countries are having a good harvest this year, like Spain, in the Malaga region,” he says.
“This has opened great speculations on the market, the producers are desperate and offer manga desperately for fear of not selling the fruits,” he says.
The President of the Union, Jailson Lira, criticizes the Federal Government, who, according to him, was trying to “measure strength with the United States” rather than negotiating a way out for the sector. The President of the Union also states that a plan was not presented to the producers.
BBC News Brazil contacted the governments of Bahia and Pernambuco, in addition to the federal government, but the direction did not position itself.
The producer Eduardo Nakahara estimates that, if maintained, the rates will have a great impact on the entire economy of the San Francisco Valley region, one of the most prosperous regions of the North Backland -Eastern, precisely due to the irrigated agriculture that produces sleeves, up and other fruits.
For him, the moment would be that the Brazilian people embrace their sleeve as a national fruit.
“Imagine doing a campaign to encourage people to buy mango, do everything upside down. Instead of ordering a strawberry juice in the restaurant, he asks Mango,” he says.
Source: Terra
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
