Most enquiries we receive in July are for fresh cartons. A smaller group of buyers, juice bottlers, dairy and ice cream manufacturers, bakery ingredient houses and frozen dessert producers, are asking a different question. They want fruit solids, not fruit calibre. Processing-grade mango is a real and separate line out of Egypt, and it behaves nothing like the fresh trade in pricing, specification or contracting.
Where processing fruit comes from
Every packhouse generates fruit that is sound but not exportable fresh. Undersize below 300 g, oversize above 900 g, minor skin blemish, irregular shape, and fruit that has advanced too far in maturity for a sea transit all fall out of the fresh grade. That fruit is perfectly good eating and is the natural feedstock for pulp and IQF. It is not waste fruit and it is not rejected fruit. Anyone offering you processing mango at a price that implies salvage material is offering you something you do not want in a beverage line.
Pulp and puree specification
| Parameter | Typical Egyptian range |
|---|---|
| Variety base | Keitt and Kent, single variety or blended by agreement |
| Brix | 14 to 18 degrees natural, concentrate available at 28 to 30 |
| Acidity | 0.3 to 0.6 percent as citric acid |
| pH | 3.5 to 4.5 |
| Pack | 215 kg aseptic bag in steel drum, or 3 kg and 20 kg frozen pouch |
| Container load | 80 drums per 20ft, approximately 17.2 MT of aseptic pulp |
Aseptic pulp is shelf stable and ships in a dry container, which removes reefer cost from your landed price. Frozen puree at minus 18 C holds a fresher flavour profile and suits smoothie and dairy applications where heat treatment is a problem, but it must move in a reefer and stay there. Decide which one your process needs before you compare quotations, because the two are not price-comparable.
IQF chunk, dice and slice
Frozen mango pieces are the growth line. Standard cuts are 10 mm and 20 mm dice, half-inch chunk, and cheek slices for foodservice. Fruit is peeled and destoned, cut, blanched only where the application requires it, then individually quick frozen in a spiral or fluidised bed. Specifications normally cover piece size tolerance, percentage of fines, free-flow behaviour after transit, and a maximum on skin and stone fragments. Packing is 10 kg cartons with a polyethylene liner, palletised 100 to 120 cartons per pallet, and shipped at minus 18 C with a documented temperature log.
How processing fits alongside fresh
The practical advantage of buying processing mango from a fresh exporter is timing. We know several weeks ahead what the grade-out will look like, because it comes off the same lines described in our walkthrough of the Egyptian mango packhouse process. That visibility lets us commit tonnage rather than offer whatever happens to be in the freezer. Buyers who also want fresh cartons in the same season should look at the Keitt specification sheet, since Keitt is both the volume fresh variety and the main pulp base from August onward.
Certification and contracting
Processing lines operate under HACCP and BRC food safety systems, with ISO 22000 available at selected facilities. Halal and Kosher certification can be arranged on request. Standard documentation covers certificate of analysis per batch, certificate of origin, health certificate and full traceability to the grower block. Terms are quoted under Incoterms 2020 from Alexandria, Damietta or Sokhna.
Processing contracts are usually annual rather than spot, and the season for committing 2026 pulp tonnage is now. Send your required Brix, pack format, annual volume and destination to our team on WhatsApp at +20 10 9911 1918 and we will return a specification sheet and quotation.