“Markets are paying six to ten times more than last season for mangoes”
“The shortage of mango supplies from Peru has seen the prices of mangoes increase significantly compared to last season. “Prices compared to the 2022/2023 season have increased significantly, due to the scarcity of mango. Markets are paying six to ten times more than last season,” says Geancarlos Solórzano, Logistics manager of G&S Agroexport, in Peru.
He says they are packing and exporting mangoes from Piura in the north of Peru. “We are currently packing in Piura in the north of Peru, which is the first city where mangoes are harvested to later go down to Casma in the department of Ancash.”
Solórzano points out the Peruvian Association of Mango Producers (Promango) says that the situation of the mango production and agroexport sector in Peru is critical because the 2023-2024 campaign will have a decrease of 80% in volumes as a result of the effects of the El Niño phenomenon.
Despite the challenging season they have just launched a new mango brand. “We launched our second trademark “MAMAY”. It is a Quechua word, from the native language that is spoken in several regions of Peru, whose meaning is “MAMA”. With the creation of this brand, we want to recognize the work that the mothers of the field do when cultivating the land and that thanks to this we can obtain the fruit of their work. The slogan is ‘From Mother Earth to Your Table’.
As a company we always try to sell something different to our customers and apart from the quality we offer, we try that the customer is known by the “brand” that is why we offer a trademark as “MAMAY”. So that you can have an identity or particularity as a seller. And in spite of the shortage of mango, we have been able to introduce the brand and we believe that in the course of this campaign we will be bringing out other commercial brands.”
Solórzano says they are focused on only exporting mangos to the European market. “Our market is purely European, we know that our company is growing and that at some point we will enter the American and Asian markets. But, for now we are sending products to Spain, France and possibly to some customers in Italy and Holland. But our main market is Spain.”
He says they are so grateful to have mangoes available to harvest and export. There are many producers who have a very limited crop due to the flowering that was affected by the heat. “Thank God, we are competing in the market and we are able to make our shipments. We will try to finish the 2023/2024 season, we know that there is little fruit, but we have God’s blessing. And we know that he will be the one to provide, we will continue working as we have been doing so far. This season may last until May or June, it is still uncertain, but what we do know is that as long as it lasts, we will try to continue and after that continue with the export of another agricultural product,” says a hopeful Solórzano.”
*This article is excerpted from freshplaza.com website, published December 8, 2023