Dominican Mango Suppliers in Florida: Sourcing Guide

By Arturo Peguero | International Trade Specialist | Former Dirección de Comercio Exterior | Former International Trade Professor

Last updated: July 2026

Quick Answer: Dominican mango reaches Florida buyers through the South Florida sea lane, landing at Port Everglades on direct weekly reefer service in about 2 to 5 days and entering the US at 0% duty under CAFTA-DR. Keitt (Jun to Sep), Mingolo (Mar to Jul), and Crema de Oro (Mar to Aug) ship in 2, 4, and 6 kg calibre-graded boxes.

If you are a Florida-based buyer, or you sell into the East Coast through a Florida entry point, Dominican mango is not an exotic import. It is a short reefer run that lands duty-free at the busiest perishables port in the state. The question is not whether the lane exists. It is whether you buy through it direct from origin or through the Miami and Fort Lauderdale receivers who already do.

This guide covers the DR-to-Florida mango lane the way a sourcing buyer needs it: the varieties and windows shipping right now, the box formats, the sea route and transit, the public price surface you can check before you commit, the duty status, and the direct-versus-distributor tradeoff.

Sourcing Dominican mango into Florida? We work directly with verified Dominican mango exporters and handle the supplier vetting, certification verification, and introductions on the DR side. Send a sourcing inquiry →

The Varieties and Windows Shipping Into Florida Now

The Dominican Republic exports three mango varieties at commercial volume, and their windows are what determine what you can actually buy in any given month. As of this July update, the Keitt program is at peak.

• Keitt (June to September). The late-season, large-format, low-fiber variety that anchors commodity retail and food service programs. Keitt is green when ripe, travels well in reefer, and is the single-variety volume workhorse of the DR summer. It is in peak window now.
• Mingolo (March to July). An aromatic criollo variety with elongated golden-yellow fruit. It fits specialty retail and premium food service. Its window is in its tail as Keitt takes over.
• Crema de Oro (March to August). A large, low-fiber variety favored by juice processors and mid-tier food service.

The widest overlap is June and July, when a Florida buyer can pull all three. August is Crema de Oro plus Keitt. September is Keitt only. For the full variety-to-channel breakdown, see our Dominican mango varieties buyer’s guide. For the 2026 summer-supply comparison against Mexican mango, see DR Keitt vs Mexican mango.

Box Formats a Florida Receiver Expects

DR mango ships in graded cartons sized by calibre, the count of fruit per box. The common export formats are 2, 4, and 6 kg boxes, with the calibre (the size count, such as 7s, 8s, or 9s) specified on the purchase agreement. A single-layer 4 kg flat is the standard for retail-facing fruit. Grading by calibre is what lets a Florida buyer spec a consistent pack for a retail set or a food service contract rather than taking mixed sizes.

The practical point for a Florida program: agree the box weight, the calibre range, and the pallet configuration up front. A DR exporter can pack to your spec, but only if the spec is stated before the fruit is graded.

The Sea Lane: Direct From the DR to South Florida

Florida is the natural US entry point for Dominican produce because the sea distance is short and the service is direct and weekly.

Port Everglades is the state’s perishables leader. It moves nearly half of all the ocean-shipped refrigerated containers in Florida and handles more perishables than any other Florida seaport, per the Port Everglades cargo authority. The Dominican Republic is one of its established trading partners for refrigerated cargo.

The service is direct and weekly. Ocean carriers run fixed-day weekly reefer sailings between the Dominican Republic and Port Everglades. Crowley’s Dominican Republic service sails northbound to Port Everglades on a roughly 3-day transit from Rio Haina and a 2-day transit from Puerto Plata, per Crowley. King Ocean also runs fixed-day weekly Dominican Republic sailings from Port Everglades, per King Ocean Services.

For planning purposes, treat the DR-to-South-Florida sea leg as a 2 to 5 day transit depending on the specific origin port and carrier rotation, then add dwell for the USDA inspection and cold-chain handoff on the Florida side. That is a short enough run that a weekly reefer container gives a Florida buyer a predictable replenishment cadence through the Keitt season.

The Public Price Surface: USDA AMS Caribbean Imports

You do not have to guess at the market. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) publishes daily terminal-market price reports that include Dominican mango.

Specifically, AMS reports Caribbean imports arriving at ports of entry in South Florida, and Dominican mango prints there by variety. The USDA AMS Miami Terminal Market fruit report is the surface where you can read the published Dominican mango prices and see how they sit against Guatemalan, Mexican, and Nicaraguan fruit on the same page. AMS also publishes a national terminal-markets index if you want to compare Miami against the New York and Philadelphia terminals.

Use it as a price-discovery reference, not a quote. The reported prices are terminal-market wholesale conditions, so a direct-from-origin FOB negotiation will land differently. But it gives a Florida buyer a public, third-party anchor for the conversation before a single box moves.

Duty Status: 0% Under CAFTA-DR

Fresh mango from the Dominican Republic enters the United States at 0% duty. The Dominican Republic is a party to CAFTA-DR, the free-trade agreement that entered into force for DR goods in 2007, and fresh produce that meets the agreement’s rules of origin enters duty-free, per the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. This applies to all DR mango varieties, so duty is not a variable in your landed-cost math. For the country-of-origin detail, see our CAFTA-DR rules of origin guide.

Direct From Origin vs Buying From a Florida Distributor

This is the decision most Florida-lane buyers are actually weighing.

Buying from a Florida-based distributor or receiver means you buy landed fruit from a Miami or Fort Lauderdale importer who already brought it through the port. You get short lead times, consolidation across origins, and no import paperwork of your own. You pay the receiver’s margin on top of the FOB, and you take the assortment and calibre mix the receiver chose, not the one you specced.

Buying direct from origin means you contract the DR exporter, spec your own variety, calibre, and pack, and take the fruit on the weekly reefer lane. You capture the receiver margin, you control the spec, and you build a repeatable season program with a named supplier. The tradeoff is that you own the coordination: the booking, the cold chain, the inspection, and the Spanish-language back-and-forth with the exporter.

For a buyer moving occasional pallets, the Florida distributor is usually the right call. For a buyer running a multi-month Keitt program, a retail set that needs a consistent calibre, or a food service contract that needs predictable weekly volume, direct-from-origin through the Florida lane is where the margin and the control are. That direct relationship is the gap DominicanSources fills.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does Dominican mango enter Florida? Dominican mango enters Florida mainly through Port Everglades, the state’s leading seaport for perishables, which moves nearly half of all the ocean-shipped refrigerated containers in Florida. Ocean carriers including Crowley and King Ocean run direct weekly reefer service between the Dominican Republic and Port Everglades, so a Florida buyer can set a predictable weekly replenishment cadence through the season.

How long does it take to ship mango from the Dominican Republic to Florida? The sea leg from the Dominican Republic to South Florida runs roughly 2 to 5 days depending on the origin port and carrier. Crowley’s Dominican Republic service reports a 3-day transit from Rio Haina and a 2-day transit from Puerto Plata to Port Everglades. Add dwell time for USDA inspection and the cold-chain handoff on the Florida side.

Is Dominican mango duty-free into the United States? Yes. Fresh mango from the Dominican Republic enters the US at 0% duty under CAFTA-DR, the free-trade agreement that entered into force for Dominican goods in 2007. This applies to every DR mango variety that meets the agreement’s rules of origin, so duty is not a factor in the landed-cost calculation.

Where can I check Dominican mango prices before I buy? USDA Agricultural Marketing Service publishes daily terminal-market fruit reports that include Dominican mango among the Caribbean imports arriving at South Florida ports of entry. The Miami Terminal Market report lists DR mango prices by variety alongside other origins, giving buyers a public, third-party price-discovery reference before negotiating a direct FOB.

Work With Verified DR Mango Exporters

DominicanSources connects Florida and East Coast buyers with vetted Dominican Republic mango exporters. Every supplier in our network has been interviewed in person, certifications verified, and trade activity confirmed. We handle the matching, the calibre and pack specification, the introductions, and the Spanish-language coordination on the DR side, so the buyer relationship moves at the speed a weekly reefer program needs.

Browse verified DR mango exporters

Send us a sourcing inquiry and we will match you with the right supplier for your variety, calibre, timing, and Florida-lane volume.

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Further Reading

• Dominican Mango Varieties: Which Fits Your Channel?
• DR Keitt vs Mexican Mango: 2026 Summer Window
• How to Source Tropical Fruits from the Dominican Republic
• CAFTA-DR Country of Origin Rules for Buyers
• Browse verified DR mango exporters

About the author: Arturo Peguero is the founder of DominicanSources, former official at the Dirección de Comercio Exterior and International Trade Professor at PUCMM with 20+ years in Dominican trade.