China has become a major production and consumption country of mangoes in recent years, which provides opportunities as well as challenges to smallholder mango growers in the Asia-Pacific region. In order to identify key trends in the Chinese market and enable increased trading opportunities, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) has funded a project that is looking to understand the preferences of mango consumers in the Chinese market.

As part of the project, Dr. Alec Zuo of Centre for Global Food and Resources (GFAR) and Associate Professor Robin Roberts of Griffith Asia Institute successfully conducted 10 mango-tasting workshops in Shanghai between 13 October and 21 October 2018. In total, around 150 participants attended the workshops.

Dr. Alec Zuo explaining the mango tasting chart

The aim of the workshop is to understand consumers’ mango purchasing behaviour in Shanghai and their tasting preferences, in order to inform growers and supply chain stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region to bring mangoes that best cater to consumers’ need in China.

Assoc. Prof. Robin Roberts leading the workshop

The workshops were part of a small research activity project Challenges and opportunities for meeting requirements of China mango markets   (AGB/2016/007) funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).