Structural Packaging Designs for Exporting ‘Nam Dok Mai’ Mango by Air Freight

Abstract

‘Nam Dok Mai’ mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a famous product of Thailand that gains a great demand in the international markets. The top importers for Thai fresh mangoes are Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Furthermore, export rates to European countries, such as France and Switzerland, are growing. There are efforts to increase the fresh ‘Nam Dok Mai’ mango export by air freight. In addition to the pre- and post-harvest treatments of the mango, the packaging system contributes to the mango’s quality during air transport. Therefore, this study aimed to design packaging prototypes for the ‘Nam Dok Mai’ mango to maintain satisfactory quality throughout the international air transport period. Existing commercial export boxes for the ‘Nam Dok Mai’ mango are BC-flute corrugated containers in the styles of regular slotted container (RSC) and full telescope design (FTD). The common pack size for exporting to South Korea and Japan is 5 kg, with varying box dimensions and vent hole designs. The packaging prototypes were aimed for the European countries with smaller but growing demands for the ‘Nam Dok Mai’ mango, and thus were designed as a 3-kg pack size. Nine B-flute and BC-flute corrugated tray prototypes with the outer dimensions of 360×260×90 mm were made. Vent holes and corner reinforcements were added to the designs to increase cold air ventilation and stacking strength, respectively. The commercial RSC and FTD boxes were rescaled to 360×260×90 mm and remade with the same corrugated board combinations as the prototypes. The peak force compressive strengths of one of the BC-flute tray prototypes and the B-flute FTD box were in the range of 3-4 kN and were not significantly different. For most of the B-flute tray prototypes, their peak force compressive strengths were comparable to that of the B-flute RSC box and were in the range of 1-2 kN. The experimental results will be beneficial as a packaging guideline for exporting the ‘Nam Dok Mai’ mango via air transport and can also be applied to other agricultural crops in the future.