Assessment of postharvest rot of mango at different stages of market in port harcourt, Nigeria

A survey was conducted from February – May 2009, to assess the level of loss due to storage rot diseases in mango at the farm and the different stages of marketing via wholesale and retail. The degree of losses due to storage rot diseases varied at the different stages of marketing. The rots were highest at the retail stage (25.9 to 57.8% at Fruit Garden market and 24.5 to 48.5% at Loco market). At the wholesale stage, the severity of the rot disease ranged from 2.0 to 3.9% at Loco market to 3.7 to 8.4% at Fruit Garden market. The rot severity at the farm stage was 1.43%. The fungi species that infected the mangoes were Aspergillus niger, Alternaria sp, Botryodiplodia theobromae and Collectrotrichum gloeosporioides. Fusarium sp, Aspergillus flavus and phoma sp were also isolated but were not associated with the mango rots. Anthrancnose caused by C. gloeosporioides and stem end rot caused by B. theobromae were the most severe at both markets.