Mexico's mango market is saturated, as the harvests in Sinaloa, Jalisco, Nayarit, and Michoacan have overlapped; which has led to a fall in international prices.
According to Ismael Diaz Murillo, a producer of fruit, a box of mangoes was sold for 3.50 to 4 dollars, but prices fell and as the production peaked they were 2 to 2.60 dollars; a fall producers hadn't experienced in 8 or 10 years .
Thus, producers are looking to reactivate the US chains via marketing strategies so as to move the packages that have been still since last week.
"The US chain stores selling Mexican mango were not prepared to move the current existing volume through promotions."
Overlap
This oversupply has happened because the producers of Michoacan, which used to finish selling their crop by May 15, are now selling it until June 15; thus overlapping with Sinaloa's export production.
After Sinaloa, Michoacan is the second biggest mango exporting state, Diaz Murillo said.
The production dates of Jalisco and Nayarit usually coincide with Sinaloa, but having another competitor producer in the market at the same time brought down the price of fruit this year, he said.
"There is a general confusion in the sector because there were no mangoes in the south, and suddenly there's a lot of mango from Jalisco, which is starting its harvest, Nayarit is about to end, and Michoacan and Sinaloa are just getting started," he said.
Production
Additionally, this year's season has achieved a record production volume of large fruit, i.e. 15 to 20 percent more than the 120,000 tons harvested in 2015.
"We believe production will be much higher than last year, there will be a lot of mango in Mexico. Another issue was that the South did not produce as in other years and then everybody was producing almost at the same time."
The average regional production volume is 160,000 tons.
Source: debate.com.mx