Angel Gamarra Condori, the president of the Peruvian Association of Mango Producers (Promango), said that Peru expects the 2025/2026 mango season to be longer than usual, lasting until April. Despite this, the country expects to export over 250,000 tons of fresh mangoes this season, down from 287,000 tons shipped last year.
Gamarra added that, although there were early challenges with flowering, the current season is going well, with a large amount of fruit.
At the beginning of August, growers expressed concern about the low flowering rate in the San Lorenzo valley (Piura), the country's main producing area, with about 24,000 hectares dedicated to the crop. "In August, only 30% of the areas showed flowering; today the situation is different, and 70% have already flowered, with the fruit in the fruit set stage," Gamarra said.
The leader indicated that the low nighttime temperatures facilitated the build-up of cold hours necessary to trigger flowering, even in trees with limited nutritional reserves. He also said that the San Lorenzo season would last until the last week of February.
Delays have also been reported in Motupe (Lambayeque), where harvesting mainly occurs between February and March. However, since the plants have begun to flower in recent weeks, Promango anticipates that 60% of the land in this area will flower. In Casma (Ancash), the plants still have enough time to accumulate cold hours and reach optimum flowering because the season lasts until April.
Small quantities of early-harvested fruit, mainly from the Edward, Haden, and Kent varieties, are already being shipped abroad by air. Peak export levels are anticipated in the first week of January, with large volumes continuing throughout the month.
A key concern in the sector is the water supply for irrigation. Gamarra mentioned that mango farmers still have enough water for three more irrigations, and the San Lorenzo reservoir is still receiving water. However, he warned that some user boards are starting to limit irrigation hours because part of the water flow is being used for a supplementary rice campaign. This may have reduced the water available to fruit growers.
"So far, we have received less than 50% of our annual water entitlement. We are entitled to 12,600 cubic metres per hectare of fruit trees like mango or lemon each year, but have never received this volume," the Promango representative stated.
Despite water shortages, the cultivated area continues to expand. In San Lorenzo, nurseries annually produce around 70,000 new plants to increase cultivation, though many of these areas are not officially registered.
Promango estimates that the country has approximately 40,000 hectares of mango orchards, with a total production of around 800,000 tons during the 2024/2025 season and an average yield of 20 tons per hectare. The yearly increase in area is hard to determine, as the new high-density plantations contain between 800 and 1,200 trees per hectare.
Source: agraria.pe
