Quixote Center partners in Gros Morne, Haiti, are dependent on mango exports for their main source of cash. Haitian producers grow the Fransik variety small, yellow, juicy and sweet. In 2022 Haiti exported 28 million mangoes to the United States, their main customer.
In late 2022 mango producers received notice that the USDA was cancelling the mango export contract, citing insecurity. It was no longer safe for USDA inspectors to disinfect the crop and clear it for export. Quixote Center has been working to change this decision since 2022. We wrote about it at the time, here, and here. These previous articles provide additional details about the importance of mango production for the region and for the country.
We have sent letters and phone calls to USDA, with no response. We had what seemed to be a hopeful meeting with State Department officials that ultimately went nowhere. Most recently we have been working with Members of Congress to pressure the Administration to develop a workaround, which would be irradiation of the fruit in Miami instead of Haiti. We are very hopeful that our colleagues in the House and Senate will make progress and get the decision reversed in time for the 2025 harvest.
In the meantime, our partners in Haiti have been working to find a local buyer. World Food Program and Food for the Poor are mandated to purchase some local produce to supply their food programs to assist schools and families in distress. So far, neither organization has agreed to purchase any of this year’s harvest, which is starting this month. Those negotiations continue.
Gros Morne producers are losing hope as well as income, and so they are beginning to cut down their trees to sell for cooking fuel. They desperately need a short-term fix, so that they can wait out the security crisis, and while we continue our work toward a solution for next year.
Not everyone in the region has mangoes. There are drier areas with no fresh fruit where the children would benefit from mangoes in their lunch program. Rather than allowing all the mangoes to rot on the ground, and rather than looking away while desperate families cut down their trees, with your help Quixote Center will purchase mangoes from Gros Morne producers, and the local parish community will transport them to remote areas that can use the fruit. The community has already organized, and they believe they can get the mangoes from tree to hungry mouth in 3 to 5 days. Besides providing delicious, nutritious mangoes to fruit-deprived areas, we hope to encourage mango growers to protect their mango trees and not cut them down for wood planks or charcoal.
We would like to raise $35,000 to support this emergency mango distribution program. This will purchase 168,000 mangoes and pay for coordination and transportation costs.
We are also working toward a longer-term solution of local mango processing (into juice and dried fruit) and local sales. This idea is on hold because the ports are closed and it is not possible to import machinery into Haiti right now. Buying mangoes now will keep this dream alive by preserving the future of the mango industry in Gros Morne.
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If you have questions or would like to discuss this issue with Kim Lamberty, you can contact her at kim@quixote.org
