The members of the Mango Product System expect that Michoacan will continue to lead mango exports in the 2017 production and export season.
Current weather conditions are considered favorable for flowering, which would allow producers to start exporting mangoes in January, which will account for 10 percent of the total volume projected to be sold to the US.
Xavier Chavez Contreras, a leader of the mango producers from Michoacan, said they expected the season to be very similar to that of 2016; i.e. the harvest would gradually start in January, there would be high peaks in May and June, and it would conclude in September.
The 2016 season was better than expected, he said. Producers had forecast they would produce 128,000 to 130,000 tons of mango but in fact produced 140 thousand tons.
The export volume also increased. In 2015 they exported 70,000 tons of mangoes, while in 2016 they shipped out 83,000 tons.
These results were due to weather conditions, the flowering and harvest, and the favorable prices that producers obtained.
90 percent of the production for export is shipped to the United States, while the remaining 10 percent is distributed to Canada, Japan, and Europe.
One of the goals that mango producers from Michoacan have is to send a higher volume of mangoes to Europe, especially in the period of time when Brazil and Peru don't sell to those markets (between March and June).
Rising prices
Chavez Contreras said that the first mango variety to hit the market was the Haden variety, which was priced at 20 to 25 pesos per kilogram.
2016 was a historic season, the producer said, as prices in the US market were stable and stood between 16 and 18 pesos per kilogram. Towards the end of the period, when the mango from Jalisco and from Nayarit came out, the average price fell 5 pesos. Unlike the mango from those states, the mango from Michoacan has a standard quality and size. However, those entities are closer to the border with the United States.
Nevertheless, Michoacan is the leading export. However, Michoacan's production volume ranks fifth below Guerrero, Chiapas, Nayarit, and Sinaloa.
At the beginning of each season, mango prices for consumers stand between 30 and 40 pesos because of the intermediaries that there are between producers and the consumers.
Ideally, the coordinator of Michoacan's Product Systems said, consumers would buy all their products directly from the producers.
Source: oem.com.mx