Florida production of mangoes will get underway in the next month or so with that season continuing through August. “It’s a good crop here. Florida is subtropical so mangos, like lychees and other tropicals, the crop depends on how much rain you get, the heat, the cold and more,” says Nick Bernal of Seasons Farm Fresh, Inc. “However, we have good volume after last year which was a low crop.” The peak season for the crop will be the latter half of June and the first half of July.
For Nick Bernal and his brother Gabe, this year the company is unveiling a new Florida mango program called Miami Mango, which it hopes will tap into the nostalgia of mango growing in the state the two grew up in. “Florida is the birthplace of many commercial varieties of mangoes such as Tommy Atkins, Keitt and Haden--they were all developed here in South Florida,” says Bernal.
Aside from being a domestically grown mango, what Bernal says will also set these mangos apart is the fact that they aren’t hot water treated or irradiated as are other mangos coming into the country. “We can literally pick the tree when it’s ripe, pack it and send it to the customer to give them the real mango experience like we grew up with,” he says.
Network of growers
The grower-shipper has a cooperative of small growers it is working with to provide Florida mango volume and it has conventional, certified organic, Primus GFS certified and more. “We’ve got those certifications by request of larger retailers who understand the flavor and value of a tree-ripened mango,” says Bernal.
While Seasons Farm Fresh has been shipping Florida mangoes for the 12 years of its existence as part of a larger mango program where it sources the fruit from nine countries including the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Peru, Colombia and more, it’s trying to build a domestic brand under the Miami Mango name. “Over the last 20 years, it’s been difficult for the Florida mango growers to compete because Mexico produces so much volume at such a cheap price that we can never compete on price or volume. However, we can compete on quality,” he says. While it’s long shipped Florida mangos to Canadian retailers, it’s now hoping to bring on more U.S. retailers this year.
Varietal awareness in mangos
He also thinks the time is right given the strengthening demand seen in mango consumption. “I’ve really seen it jump up, especially on some higher-end mangos. The same thing that’s happening in mangos now is what happened with grapes with all of the variety development,” Bernal says.
In the marketplace, while the bulk of mangos are from Mexico and will be red mangos, some mangos like the Colombian sell for $20-25/box compared to regular mangos that can sell for $4-$6/box when the market is flooded. He also adds that pricing on the Miami Mango program will be slightly higher than that, more into the $7-$9 range.
Now to help build the brand, Bernal encourages retailers to use sampling to create consumer awareness. “If you bring a tree-ripened mango to the stores and let it ripen a bit more when you sample, you don’t need to do anything else. The mango sells itself,” he says.
For more information:
Nick Bernal
Seasons Farm Fresh, Inc.
Tel: +1 (305) 608-9020
nick@seasonsfarmfresh.com
https://seasonsfarmfresh.com/