Ask three importers what size mango they want and you will get three different answers, all correct for their own channel. Size on mango is not a quality grade. It is a commercial decision about who is going to eat the fruit and how it is going to be sold. Getting it wrong is expensive in both directions, because oversized fruit sits on a retail shelf and undersized fruit is refused by a foodservice buyer.
How Egyptian mango is sized
Egypt sizes mango by piece weight, then converts that into a count per carton. The two standard export formats are the 5 kg carton and the 5 kg box, both 5 kg net and single layer. A 4.5 kg carton is available on request for buyers running an existing specification.
On the 5 kg carton the common counts are 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12. Count 6 means six pieces of 775 to 900 grams each, count 7 is 670 to 775 grams, count 8 is 590 to 670 grams, count 9 is 530 to 590 grams, count 10 is 460 to 530 grams, and count 12 is 385 to 460 grams. Counts 14 and 16 — 335 to 385 grams and 295 to 335 grams — are packed on the small indigenous varieties only. Counts 11, 18 and 20 are not packed at all, and count 16 is the smallest unit: fruit under about 295 grams goes to the domestic market or to processing.
The count is only a specification when the carton format is stated with it. The same fruit that is a count 7 in a 5 kg carton is a count 6 in a 4.5 kg carton, so convert any competing offer to grams before comparing price.
What each variety naturally produces
Keitt sizes large. A typical Keitt block gives most of its crop in the 500 to 900 gram range, which lands on counts 6 through 10 in the 5 kg carton. The largest fruit usually goes to Gulf wholesale where it carries a visible premium.
Kent runs slightly smaller and more uniform, concentrated at 450 to 700 grams, giving counts 7 through 12. That uniformity is why Kent is the easier variety to sell into European retail programmes that need a consistent unit.
Naomi is the smallest of the three main export varieties, typically 400 to 600 grams, filling counts 8 through 12. It suits punnet and pre-pack formats. Variety selection is covered further in our note on choosing between Keitt, Kent and Naomi.
The indigenous varieties sit below all three. Owaisi runs 300 to 500 grams on counts 10 to 16, and Sedeeka 250 to 450 grams on counts 12 to 16. They are the only varieties packed below count 12.
Matching count to channel
European and UK retail generally wants fruit of 385 to 530 grams — counts 10 to 12 in the 5 kg carton — sold loose or in a two-piece punnet. The buying rationale is a unit price point the shopper recognises. Fruit above roughly 600 grams pushes the shelf price past that point and slows sell-through.
Gulf wholesale markets take fruit of 530 to 775 grams, counts 7 to 9. Large fruit signals quality in that trade and moves at a visible premium over the same variety in a smaller count.
Foodservice and hotel supply want consistency above all. A fixed count, usually 9 or 10, lets a kitchen portion predictably. Mixed counts in the same delivery are a genuine problem for that buyer even if the fruit itself is sound.
Processing and pulp buyers do not care about count at all. They buy on brix, flesh recovery and total weight, and take the fruit that does not fit a fresh specification.
Tolerance and mixing
A single-count carton should be exactly that. Standard practice allows a small share of the adjacent count, commonly 5 to 10 percent by piece, and the tolerance should be written into the contract rather than assumed. Anything looser and the receiver is effectively buying a mixed carton at a single-count price.
Mixed-count loads are legitimate and often cheaper, but they need to be described as mixed on the offer, the packing list and the carton label. Labelling detail is covered in our note on mango carton labelling and traceability.
How many cartons that is in a container
A standard pallet builds to 200 cartons in the 5 kg format, or 180 in the 5 kg box. A 40 ft reefer takes 20 standard pallets plus one euro pallet, 21 in total: 4,160 cartons and 20,800 kg net in the carton, or 3,744 cartons and 18,720 kg in the box. A 20 ft reefer takes 10 standard pallets — 2,000 cartons and 10,000 kg net. Maximum payload is 25 tonnes on every unit.
Availability of counts changes through the season
Early in a variety window the crop skews smaller. As the harvest progresses average fruit weight rises. That means large counts are easiest to secure in the middle and back end of a variety window, and buyers who need count 6 and 7 Keitt should be booking against the later picks rather than the first ones. Where a given week sits in the season is worth checking before fixing a count on a forward order.
To confirm which counts are packing this week, request a size distribution from current lots, or fix a count specification for your programme, message Nile Prime on WhatsApp at +20 10 9911 1918.