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Reported By

Prof. Dr. Ir. Hadi K Purwadaria, MSc

Prof. Dr. Ir. Anas M Fauzi, MEng

R. Dikky Indrawan, SP. MM

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Good Handling Practices to Improve Mangosteen Competitiveness Hadi K Purwadaria, Anas M Fauzi, and R. Dikky Indrawan

I. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background

The value of mangosteen export has been the largest among other fruit

products reaching 7.2 Million USD in 2009 (Deptan, 2012). The major mangosteen

export destination was China (57 %), Hongkong (24 %), and Uni Emirat Arab (9 %).

Indonesia also exported mangosteen to Europe with a volume of 3 %, but the price

was doubled over the one exported to Asia and Middle East. Indonesian

competitors in mangosteen world market, among others, are Thailand and

Malaysia. In European retail market (ITC, 2009), Indonesian mangosteen was

sometimes priced at the same value with Thai mangosteen, i.e., Eu 7.9/kg in

Sweden, but sometimes Thai mangosteen was priced higher at Eu 8.7/kg in

Denmark.

Mangosteen production is spread all over Indonesia with major locations are

in North Sumatera, West Sumatera, Lampung, West Java, South Sulawesi, West

Nusa Tenggara, and Bali provinces. West Java is the major producer contributing to

38 % of the total production with the mangosteen centers at Purwakarta,

Tasikmalaya, Sukabumi, and Bogor districts. The well known mangosteen cultivar

for export is Wanayasa from Purwakarta District, West Java.

Various studies (Nainggolan,2007 and Erlangga et al. 2012) recommended

that the mangosteen post harvest handling practices should be improved to

increase the fruit quality and competitiveness.

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1.2. Objectives

The specific objectives of this project are as follows

i. Develop manual guidance of good handling practices and partnership

model.

ii. Promoting the project results as learning media for others, and it can

be duplicate and use in other places.

II. METHODS

Three mangosteen farmer groups were selected at various locations to

observe the maturity index for harvesting, harvesting operation, and currtent

postharvest handling practices. They were farmer groups at Kiarapedes,

Purwakarta; Mekarsari, Bogor, and Leuwiliang, Bogor, all in West Java. Handling

the mangosteen for export preparation was done at PT Agung Mustika Selaras

(AMS) in Jakarta, one of the big exporters in Indonesia who had packing house.

Fruit samples were taken for various purposes such as for the maturity

index, defect fruits, short stem, oval fruits, and Indonesian export standard. Defect

fruits because of rough surfaces could enter the bulk commodity sent by farmers to

the exporters, while pest and diseases invested fruits commonly already removed

on the field for they were easily detected by farmers. Fruits with short stem, less

than 2 cm stem, were often found in the fruit population shipped from the farm.

Some of the fruits were cut into halves and image processing were taken in

the Food and Agricultural Product Processing Laboratory, Faculty of Agricultural

Engineering and Technology, IPB. The fruit images were processed further to

obtain appropriate drawing.

Manual for Good Postharvest Handling Practices (GPHP) was then

developed covering the activities from harvesting to export shipment. The

cooperation of exporter and farmer group in implementing the good post harvest

handling practices was observed at the farmer group packing house at a farmer

group at Tasikmalaya under supervision from another big exporter in West Java.

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III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1.General

Potential stakeholders in mangosteen industry had been participating in the

development and implementation of these projects. The project had set up the

manual of Good Postharvest Handling Practices that could play a vital role in

enhancing and maintaining mangosteen competitiveness. The main results were

listed in groups per project component (Table 1).

Table 1. Project component and results

Project components Results

The establishment of an agreed

manual of good handling practices of

mangosteen in Purwakarta with the

plan of implementation model of

sustainable mangosteen

a. English Manual of Good Postharvest

Handling Practices (GPHP) printed

b. Bahasa Indonesia Manual of Good

Postharvest Handling Practices (GPHP)

Printed

c. Both version uploaded at web site of RTI

MB-IPB,

d. leaflets printed

e. Implementation plan

Report and Presentation a. Written Report in English of the project

activities including evaluation.

b. Power point presentation of the project

was decided not to be delivered on the

final conference by the committee due lack

of time

3.2.Manual on Good Postharvest Handling Practices (GPHH)

English Manual of GPHH was inserted at the end of this report, while the

Manual in Bahasa Indonesia could be found separately. It will be also uploaded to

the web site of MB-IPB, and printed in a concise content in leaflets.

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3.3. Implementation of Good Postharvest Handling Practices

GPHH manual has been distributed to the farmers and exporters. By

understanding the manual, thus, understanding export standard quality, the fruits

that were accepted for export, and the fruits that were sorted out of export, farmers

would be expected to gain benefit. Farmers could make their decision to either 1)

sell their products in bulk with one price agreed by two parties with the exporter, 2)

do the grading at the farmer group packing house and sell the export quality to

exporter at higher price, and domestic quality to supermarket and other domestic

markets at each different price, or 3) do the grading together with the exporter at the

farmer grading house setting up different prices for different grades.

Since the whole activities of this project were carried out in one mangosteen

harvest season, the developed manual was only finished at the end of the season.

Implementation could be done only one time. The first and only trial was conducted

at the farmer group in Tasikmalaya, West Java in cooperation with PT Alamanda

another big exporter in West Java, selecting the third alternative as previously

described.

Result showed that many steps of the recommended practices were not yet

adopted for various technical reasons. Supervision by IPB Team was often clashed

with the limited handling time pursued by the farmers and exporter. When the fruits

arrived from the orchard, the handling time was limited to only one hour to do all the

activities until they were packed and ready for shipment to the next point of supply

chain, be it the airport or seaport, or the exporter packing house if farmers sell their

products in bulk. Further practices with better preparation should be launched at the

next harvest season, and with repetitive exercises, it was expected that the farmer

groups would be able to fully adopt the recommended manual.

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IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Manual of Good Postharvest Handling Practices in mangosteen have been

developed in Bahasa Indonesia, and distributed to the farmer groups in Bogor,

and West Java, and to some exporters. Broader coverage for distribution is

under way in anticipation of the coming harvest season. The manual will be

printed on leaflets, and uploaded to MB-IPB website in the near future to facilitate

the access from all over Indonesia.

2. One cooperation between mangosteen farmer group and exporter has been

formed as a model. Trial for implementation to adopt the manual at the packing

house of the farmer group, in cooperation with the exporter has been carried out.

Further practices in the next mangosteen harvest season under supervision of

IPB Team is recommended to be carried out with better preparation prior to the

postharvest handling operations.

V. LESSONS LEARNED

The program has developed good handling practices manual taking into

considerations the Global GAP requirements. Harvesting has been observed at

various maturity indexes from index 0 to index 6 based on less than 100 days after

anthesis to about 112 days after anthesis. Mangosteen for export is recommended

to be picked up in the range of index 2 – 4 (104 – 108 days after anthesis) depends

on the time to reach the export destination. Further steps of good handling practices

include transportation from farm to the next station, grading, packaging, and

transportation to exporter. Current grades applied by the mangosteen exporters are

still used as references.

Early implementation of the manual at Tasikmalaya, West Java indicated that

more training and preparation should be done. The next implementation will be

carried out at the mangosteen farmer group at Wanayasa, Purwakarta, West Java

in the coming harvest season next year.

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REFERENCES

Erlangga, N., Purwadaria, H.K. and Firdaus, M. 2012. Improvement of mangosteen

farming and postharvest handling strategies based on global gap standard at

Kiara Pedes, Purwakarta District. Paper, International Conference on Sustainable

Business Competitiveness in Indonesian Agribusiness, Bogor, 25-26 June 2012.

Nainggolan, G.Y. 2007. Kajian Strategi Peningkatan Mutu Buah Manggis (Study on

Strategy to Increase Mangosteen Fruit Quality). MS Thesis. Program Studi

Manajemen dan Bisnis. IPB,Bogor.

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APPENDIX

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Recommended Good Post Harvest Handling Practices for Mangosteen

1. Mangosteen fruits are harvested at the

maturity index of 2 – 4 (104 – 108 days

after anthesis) for exports. Various

mangosteen fruits at various maturity

indexes (index 0-6 at 100-112 days after

anthesis) are listed in Appendix 1.

Harvesting could be done manually by

farmers by climbing the tree and carrying

the bag made out of cloth material. The

bag is slung down from shoulders to

waist. Figures depict a mangosteen

orchard, a mangosteen tree, a farmer

equipped with the harvest bag, and

climbing the tree. 2. Picking up the fruits by hands should

leave at minimum 2 cm stem and keep the

four calyx of the fruits intact.

3. Fruits are supposed to be transferred

immediately when the bag is half full in to

small plastic crates of 2 – 3 kg. The plastic

crates then are stacked and bound by

strong cord for about 6 – 8 layers at the

back of motorcycle, and transported

carefully to the first pool at farmers’

house.

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4. Farmers carefully remove the

mangosteen fruits from the small crates to

the bigger size ones of about 9 kg , or 12

kg avoiding mechanical damages. When

farmers directly sell the fruits to exporters,

sorting of fruits with maturity index over

than 4 is suggested to be carried out prior

to the packing with bigger sizes of plastic

crates. The fruits with maturity index

higher than 4 could be sent to domestic

markets.

5. Besides sorting out the over mature

fruits, the defect fruits are also removed.

Defect fruits include cracking, pest and

diseases infested ones, rough surfaces,

short stem, and lost calyx. Figures depict

pest and diseases infested fruits,

cracking, and rough surfaces.

6. Transportation from farmers to

exporters, is required to be done in the

refrigerated truck. 7. When exporters have partnership with farmer groups, the sorting will be

combined with classifying into various grades based on the export standards at

the packing house of farmer groups.

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8. Grading, either at the packing house of exporters or the packing house of

farmer groups is supposed to be done as follows.

9. Fruits inside temporary packaging are

down loaded from the transport vehicles.

When the foreign customer demands for

fumigation, fruits could be fumigated

inside a used shipping container of 20 ft3

size or 10 tons of mangosteen for two

hours. Fumigation is recommended to be

done by a commercial fumigation agent

who practices good standard of operation.

10. Prior to grading, insects remain under

the calyx is supposed to be driven out by

using air compressor.

11. Grading could be done manually by

experienced workers who separate the

different grades into each individual 9 kg

plastic crate that has been lined by paper.

Various export grades are illustrated in

Appendix 2. Existing over maturity fruits,

and defect fruits are thrown into separated

containers.

12. Each plastic crate is weighed to a net

content of 9 kg of fruits, covered by a

sheet of damped plastic foam with a

thickness around 0.5 cm to retain the

humidity in the packaging, and the top

lining paper .

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13. Each packaging is labeled and bound

by strong plastic belt of 2 cm wide.

14. Transportation from exporters to the

airport for shipment is also required to be

done in the refrigerated truck.

15. Standard size containers are used to

carry the fruits and put into the air cargo

room which is equipped by cooling

system. The capacity of the small size

containers is 148 crates each 9 kg, while

the pallet is 442 crates each 9 kg.

16. Individual inner eating quality of mangosteen at various export quality

grades are illustrated at Appendix 3, along with some defects, and unique oval

fruit.

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APPENDIX 1. MATURITY INDEX OF MANGOSTEEN FRUITS

Mangosteen fruit at maturity index 0 (100 days after anthesis), and 1 (102 days after anthesis)

Mangosteen fruit at maturity index 2 (104 days after anthesis), 3 (106 days after anthesis),

and 4 (108 days after anthesis). Ideal export quality is taken from this range.

Mangosteen fruit at maturity index 5 (110 days after anthesis), and 6 (112 days after anthesis)

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APPENDIX 2. EXPORT STANDARD QUALITY OF MANGOESTEEN

Grade Super I : 1. smooth surface without defects, and no scratching, 2.

complete four fresh calyxes remain intact and green color, 3. fresh green stem at

minimum 2 cm length, 4. shining fruit color, 5. maturity index in the range of 2 – 4

(104 – 108 days after anthesis)

Grade A 6 : 5-6 fruits per kg Grade A 5 : 7-8 fruits per kg Grade A 4 : 9-10 fruits per kg

Grade A 3: 11-12 fruits per kg Grade A 2 :13-14 fruits per kg

Grade A 1 :15-16 fruits per kg (no picture)

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Grade Super II : 1. smooth surface with 30 % rough surfaces and scratching

allowed, 2. no or one calyx missing and not so fresh, 3. not so fresh green stem

at minimum 2 cm length, 4. faded fruit color, 5. maturity index in the range of 2 –

4 (104 – 108 days after anthesis)

Grade Number of Fruits Per Kg

AAA 5 - 8

AA 9 - 10

A 11 - 14

Grade Super III : 1. smooth surface with 30 – 50 % rough surfaces and

scratching allowed, 2. no or one calyx missing and not so fresh, 3. not so fresh

green stem at minimum 2 cm length, 4. faded fruit color, 5. maturity index in the

range of 2 – 4 (104 – 108 days after anthesis)

Grade Number of Fruits Per Kg

L 5 - 9

M 10 - 14

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APPENDIX 3. INDIVIDUAL MANGOSTEEN FRUIT AND THE INNER EATING

QUALITY AT VARIOUS EXPORT GRADES

Grade: Super I – A6

Grade: Super I – A5

Grade: Super I – A4

Grade: Super I – A3

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Grade: Super I – A2

Grade: Super II – AAA

Grade: Super II – AA

Grade: Super II – A

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UNIQUE OVAL FRUIT

DEFECT FRUITS

Grade: Super III – L

Grade: Super III – M

Oval fruit (left) compared to round fruit (right) . Oval fruits has higher price than round ones.

Rough surface fruit

(left) and short stem

less than 2 cm

compared to the

neighboring fruit

(right).