By week 46 things had started to ramp up a bit and 70 containers left for the US a couple of weeks later. This coincided with the end of the Ecuadorian season which drops sharply after week 50.
By week 52 Peru had shipped 1,750 containers, most of which were headed for Europe, the remainder went the the US and other destinations. Volumes to the US will start to increase now.
"Volumes from Peru are lower than last year at this time, the season is running later than normal," explains Rob Cullum from Pacific Produce. "It is very hard to predict what the mango volumes will be. Whereas last year there were big volumes on the market early on, this year should be more stretched out."
The main producing region of Piura, should have normal volumes, but Motupe may be a bit short.
He goes on to say the mango market is also very hard to predict because there are many small growers in Peru. According to Dutch traders the European market has large volumes at the moment, but according to Rob the UK market is a bit different.
"The markets are different due to the dominance of the retailers in the UK, this makes it a more programmed market where prices are predetermined. The retailers also have strict technical and ethical policies and this costs the growers money, which is why they need to agree a price in advance. We ship on fast vessels which have higher costs – with the purpose of giving a consistent quality that can be ripened evenly. What we want is a good customer experience to increase consumption.
Due to the abundance of small growers there is a certain volume of fruit that will depart from Peru to Rotterdam that does not carry the certifications and is not packed in European standard packing houses. This fruit can cause a secondary market which is more volatile than the retail – it can often bring very low prices and has mixed quality – it is very difficult to bring a container from many growers and for the fruit to have consistency.
Sometimes this fruit can achieve higher prices than the certified fruit – in short weeks or in low volume years, this can be frustrating to those farmers who invest. Our strategy is always to invest and to bring the highest quality that we can achieve with the certification that our customers require if you own trees then you need to play the long game!
For more information:Robert Cullum
Pacific Produce
+44 (0) 1865877801
Email: rob@pacificproduce.co.uk
www.pacificproduce.co.uk