"Mangoes really shouldn't be imported during the summer"

The summer is usually not a good period for the mango market. According to Eryvan Pires of Fruitmarket, this year was even very bad for the entire month of July thus far. "The holiday period in Europe caused a decrease in demand. Imported products do especially badly, since the competition with European produce is huge then."

Low prices
According to him, the volume on the market wasn't that big. "But prices were at the lowest level. Price lists showed an average of 3.50, but I think it was sold for less. A lot of mangoes couldn't be sold. The summer is actually a period when mangoes shouldn't be imported at all." Not importing would be a possibility, he thinks. "The importer then has to decide not to import, or at least a lot less. It's not maths, but several things have to be considered, like programmes, commissions, advances, etc."

Pressure from Israel
"At the moment, there are Brazilian mangoes in the market, and volumes are arriving from Central America every day. Israel hasn't started yet, and this can also put some pressure on prices for the end of August and the beginning of September. But Brazil, on the other hand, doesn't have that much Tommy Atkins production, so there won't be any pressure from Brazil until the end of September, seeing how it's currently the season in the US market. If we miss the Brazilian Tommy Atkins, the price for this variety could go up. That's because countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal prefer red mangoes from Brazil over green ones from Israel."

Russian boycott
He thinks European importers will suffer less from the boycott than exporters. "Many Russian customers asked me for direct programmes. Direct programmes from Brazil, Peru and Israel to Russia have already been established, but I think pallet-wise a lot is still going through Dutch importers. Russian customers buy more varieties of fruit in one load: mixed pallets. They enjoy 'shopping' in the Netherlands. It seems to be only about products that originate from Europe, not the import products from overseas. So I should still be able to import mangoes and ship these from the Netherlands."

For grapes, the story will be different from last year. "Then we had a lot of competition from Greece, because the Russians were mainly buying Greek grapes at very low prices. This year they can't buy those grapes, so hopefully they'll focus more on Brazil."

For more information:
Eryvan Leal Pires
Fruitmarket Agribusiness BV
Lichtenauerlaan 102-120
3062 ME Rotterdam, NL
Ph: +31 10 340-0125
Skype: eryvan
www.fruitmarket.com