Lower–but steady–pricing on mangos

Supplies of mango from Mexico are steady and good. “Rounds from Michoacan state are showing big sizes, excellent quality while Nayarit State has some very nice Ataulfos with large sizes,” says Daniel Ibarra, President of Splendid by Porvenir. “We’re now starting in the state of Sinaloa where they have terrific Rounds and Ataulfos in Northern Sinaloa.”

Compared to last year at this time, the big difference so far for the 2023 Mexican mango season is that in April/May, there was too much fruit being imported at that time and the market wasn’t aware of the volume nor prepared to promote it then. “Parts of Sinaloa have been a bit delayed—they’ve usually started by now. However they’ll be heavy in a couple of weeks,” says Ibarra. “We were a little late due to inclement weather down south getting started first of the year.”

In all, right now supplies are coming from Michoacan, Colima, Nayarit and Sinaloa. Guerrero is also supplying.

Communicating the need for promotions

Meanwhile demand for mangos is steady and growing with summer promotions coming on. Consumption of mangos is also growing but Cindy Schwing, VP of Marketing for Splendid says there are still a lot of opportunities for growth. The main issue is alerting retail partners as to when to offer more product and hoping they will agree to promote it. “That is a challenge–communication and trust from our retail partners and our growers to promote/move their fruit. Mangoes have still not reached their potential from a cultural standpoint. They’ve never been eaten in the U.S. as they have been in other countries,” says Schwing. “There’s definitely work to be done in the field.”

Jaguar mango

To help its demand, Splendid recently introduced a new sleek Jaguar 9 lb. Honey mango box to display at store level. “It promotes the idea of having a wild experience with yellow (Honey) mangoes,” says Schwing. The shipper will begin shipping these packages with mangos in the first part of July and continue on throughout the month. Via this packaging, the company also hopes to improve the awareness of saving the jaguars and a landing page was created to support the effort.

Pricing

Pricing is lower than last year overall following the demand pattern for mangos post-Cinco de Mayo. “However prices are holding now and so is demand. Volume is picking up though which may affect pricing,” says Ibarra. “We’re watching it closely.” That said, in Mexico, the national price has gone up despite the rise in volume and that’s created an interesting market situation in the U.S.