Idghlights of the 4th International Mango Symposium

I want to thank Dr. Chia for his kind invitation and helpful support so that I could participate in this conference. He asked me to summarize the events at the 4th International Mango Symposium that was held at Miami Beach in July, 1992. Planning for that meeting began with an invitation at the close of the 3rd International Mango Symposium in Darwin, Australia, three years ago. The Mango Symposia are sponsored by the Mango Working Group of the International Society for Horticultural Science. The symposium was organized by Dr. Jonathan Crane (Extension Specialist in tropical fruits) at the Tropical Research and Education Center at Homestead. Dr. Bruce Schaffer organized the program. Overall, there were around 500 participants at the symposium representing around 40 different countries. The symposium included a pre­ conference field tour of mango production in Sinaloa, on the west coast of Mexico. It is one of the major exporting areas of mangos to the United States. They primarily export 'Tommy Atkins', 'Haden', and 'Keitt'. Import from Mexico is one of our biggest problems, as far as our small mango­ producing area in Homestead is concerned, because of the large volume of fruit that comes into the country. Seventy-five oral presentations and a number of posters were presented. The subject areas covered world production, plant pathology, physiology, growth and development, taxonomy, breeding and genetics, horticultural practices, postharvest physiology, handling and marketing, entomology, and pesticide regulations. Following are highlights of the conference presentations.