“Our first shipment of Edward mangoes from Peru was quite a challenge”

Peru’s mango harvest season has started slowly with very low volumes due to a warm winter that led to very little flowering and fruit available to be harvested. According to Fernando Hidalgo, from Grupo Cultivemos in Peru, the effects of El Niño are very serious for their industry: “As for our first shipment of Edward mangoes, it was quite a challenge. The start of the season is always complicated and this year even more so. Despite all the unfavourable conditions, the production has been quite low.”

Due to the lower volumes the harvesting of the first mangoes have become complicated. “Harvesting is more complicated. We have to assemble smaller harvesting teams and do small harvests simultaneously to achieve the volumes. The transportation costs of the fruit from the fields to the field plant have also increased significantly. We used to use a small truck to transport 300 crates to the plant. Now we transport 50 to 100 crates per harvest. This increases the cost. The situation at the plant is also complex, and we have to be very precise in coordinating the timing. Because the area, in general, has low production and, therefore, little work for the labourers, they migrate to other areas. So, we also have limited personnel, and we have to coordinate well with them to ensure they show up on packing day. It was an operation full of challenges and surprises, but we managed to overcome them, and now we are also starting the Kent mango harvest,” explains Hidalgo.

He says despite these challenges Grupo Cultivemos aim to continue serving their international clients. “We are very committed to serving our customers, but we are concerned about how the market will react to the selling prices because all these additional costs ultimately add to the value of the box.”