The manager of the Peruvian Association of Producers and Exporters of Mangoes (APEM), Juan Carlos Rivera Ortega, stated that Peru exported 5,030 containers of fresh mangoes between the beginning of the 2017/2018 campaign, which started in week 45 (November 6), up until the end of week 5 (February 4). In the same period of the previous campaign (2016/2017), the country shipped 6,130 containers of said product. Each container stores 23 tons of said fruit.
Rivera Ortega stressed that the reduction in shipments (1,100 containers) had been caused by the delay in the campaign due to La Niña phenomenon.
"Since the mango is a tropical product, it needs heat for the ripening of the fruit (as in the last campaign, when temperatures increased because of the Coastal El Niño); in the current campaign the cold registered by the presence of La Niña slowed the maturation process," he stated.
As a result, he said, exports peaked in week 1 in the previous campaign and in week 3 in the current campaign.
Therefore, he added, there was a delay of 15 days, which is why they expect the current campaign will end later than the previous campaign. "The 2017/2018 campaign would end in April with the Casma mango (Ancash)."
Juan Carlos Rivera also said that in recent weeks the difference in the amount of containers sent this campaign versus those sent in the previous one was becoming smaller. As such, the guild he represents expects that, by the end of this campaign, they will have exported the same 7,900 containers they shipped in the previous campaign.
"Mango producers and exporters are doing their job. We hope the volume we plan to export comes out in the best conditions so that we can finally have a positive balance in the current campaign," he said.
Peruvian mangoes have no competitors in Europe and the United States
The manager of APEM also said that the delay in the Peruvian offer had allowed them to avoid the competition from the Ecuadorian mango in the United States and the Brazilian mango in Europe.
"In these weeks we are practically alone in the United States and Europe only has a small volume of Brazilian mangoes, so we are the main exporters of fresh mangoes in these markets in these weeks," he said.
Source: agraria.pe