According to Xavier Chavez Contreras, representative of the Mango Product System at the national and state level, the cold weather in the U.S. has been a determining factor for the lack of demand for mangoes and for the price of a nine-pound box to fall to $2.25; a price so low that mango exports to the U.S. were stopped since last week.
Chavez Contreras said in an interview that more than half of the U.S. territory, where they export 83% of their mango production every year, are covered with ice, which reduces mango consumption among the population. As a result, the markets' warehouses are filled with fruit.
He also said that the packers would meet to discuss the situation and see if "they want to keep exporting at low prices, which would reduce the incomes for the packers and producers, as their products would be bought at a much cheaper price." Chavez Contreras said that the current production volume amounted to nearly 80 tons per day and that it was being sent to the domestic market, where the price for a kilo of ripe mango can get to be up to 20 pesos and a price for green mangoes ranges between nine and ten dollars.
The problem, he said, would be once the mango production peaks after Easter. However, he stated, "since we are not at that point yet, the mango industry is optimistic and hopes that the weather starts to get warmer in the United States within a month so there can be an increase in demand and the price of the fruit increases."
Severe decline in the price of papaya
The papaya sector, which had been marketing the fruit at twelve pesos per kilo in late 2014, is currently suffering a severe setback.
The price of a kilo of papaya has dropped sharply and is currently being sold between 2.50 pesos and 4 pesos due to the market's saturation and the cold plaguing the United States, which has led to a decrease in consumption. The income for papaya producers in the state of Michoacan has declined drastically. Armando Magallon Vazquez, President of the National Committee of the Papaya Product System, said there had been an increase in the production volume, from 700 tons per week to 1000 tons per week. He also stated that Colima had stopped sending the product to the U.S.