Yesterday I bought a box of Kay Bee brand Kesar mangoes, from an Indian grocery store in West Palm Beach.
I was surprised when the grocer retrieved the case from a refrigerated room. They were cold. I have just emailed Kay Bee to see if they ship their mangoes already ripe. Otherwise, I'm assuming that the cold will prevent them from reaching their potential.
I ate one last night. It was good but not excellent. Since I've never had Kesar mangoes before I have nothing to compare it to.
not sure what system these people are using, but some fruit exporters are adopting, newer quality control measures. the old traditional method, packing houses receive fruit from the orchards, measure brix, then determine from that , at what temperature the fruit need to be in shipping, to prevent them from ripening in transit.
the main problem here, is that shippers to be on the safe side, will push for pickers to pick fruit sooner, or will refrigerate colder than normal. these fruit are often received at destination, too soon, and supermarkets just store them until they look good for the selves. this storage also is not desired by supermarket chains and distributors.
Newer quality control measures, The packing house will receive fruit, measure brix, but now use a formula, for that particular variety, and destination. they will in some cases "haste" the ripening, using ethylene. ( this is the natural process used by fruit ) take note that this is not the dangerous Calcium carbide artificial ripening. also must understand they are not actually ripening them before hand. what they are doing is synchronizing the ripening stage of the fruit. this and adjusting them so the fruit will not have to be refrigerated at lower temperatures, they also time it so fruit will arrive at "ready to be sold" stage. this removes the possibility of bad storage practices at the supermarkets or distributors, temperature sensors are stored in random boxes, these record the whole shipping, at destination, they can pop these in a computer and the buyer "knows" what these fruit have gone through.
In other words, both buyers and shippers are working to improve quality of fruit for end consumer, a poor little mango goes through a lot of sh*t before it reaches your kitchen table. when it comes from across the planet.