The mango season started earlier this year, but expectations are that the maximum volumes will be achieved later in the harvest stage and, therefore, will arrive later to the markets. The mango harvest season started with the collection of the Edward variety, which provides producers and exporters in the Chilean market with an important window.
Victor Ruesta Alban, the General Manager of the Diamond Fruits company, confirmed that the harvest had started earlier this year, but said that they expected to reach “the maximum volumes at the end of November or beginning of December, with the harvest of the Kent variety, which predominates in Peru.”
Ruesta said that their varieties go hand in hand with the markets to which they export their mangoes. “For example, for Chile, we started with the earliest fruit, such as the Edward mango, then we ship the Haden mangoes, and later the Kent mangoes. This is how we also export to South Korea, China, Europe, and the USA, in this case the Kent variety, and we do it both by air and by sea.”
Chile mainly exports its mangoes to Europe, but the Diamond Fruits company’s main markets are in Asia, specifically in South Korea and China, even though they also make shipments to Chile, Europe, and the USA in that order. Ecuador, Peru’s main competitor in the mango sector, is now starting its season, which is basically aimed at the US market.
The production volume is expected to be low but the quality will be great
Victor Ruesta also spoke about the expectations for this season. He said they expected the production volumes to be “40% lower than in the previous season. However, the quality will be very good, especially because producers have done an excellent job and investment, despite how difficult this can be due to the economic situation producers face because of weather issues.”
Diamond Fruits also has good expectations regarding the demand in the international market. “This depends a lot on the conjuncture of an unpredictable market, but we believe that this year we will not have many problems because having lower volumes will allow us to achieve a good price during this year’s campaign.”