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Featured, News, Secrets & Lies

Mango Mania Begins- Despite Mango Chaos

June 23, 2022

Climate-induced unpredictability & heightened demand creates chaos in mangoland

The show must go on. Our annual summer promotion, Crespo Organic Summer Mango Mania #MuchosMangoes starts today despite ultra-chaotic, confused markets particularly on the conventional side, which creates significate pressures on the organic side of things. Despite considerably delays with the Nayarit fruit starting, our show goes on and we expect our peak volumes and the mango mania to coincide with the month of July, kind of as planned.

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Featured, News

What the heck is Crespo Organic Summer Mango Mania?

June 13, 2022

Quick answer: #MangoJoy by way of #MuchosMangoes PRICED RIGHT

Summer:  the warmest season of the year, in the northern hemisphere from June to August
Mango: a tropical oval or oblong fruit with succulent and juicy aromatic pulp and firm varying color blush toned skin and a hard central pit
Mania: an excessive enthusiasm or desire; an obsession

 The mango’s popularity is soaring to new heights amongst Americans as they learn what the rest of the world already knew about the most widely consumed fruit globally. It is versatile and delicious and, thanks to the proximity of Mexico and Crespo Organic, priced perfectly at the peak of summertime.

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Culture, Featured, News, People

Empaque don Jorge (El Original)

May 15, 2022

Boasting the most efficient and modern mango pack house around

Disclaimer: This is a boastful and prideful post about a packing house that I truly believe in. I’m one of a few globally well-traveled industry folks with an extremely diverse make up of commodities, markets, cultures and systems. I have seen a lot of packing houses and “sheds” in my travels and none like this one. Boasting this facility and the Crespo’s is the natural outcome of my true beliefs.

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We don’t talk enough about the quality of packing houses in our business and yet this is the one place that  can make or break a program, the place that usually solves and/or causes most problems in terms of product quality, food safety and compliances. Most fruits and vegetables are harvested and then brought to a packing house or shed where they are then packed into various bulk or retail packaging. These large and small sorting/packing hubs serve as the distribution outlet for the farm  and/or the farmers. These facilities can be modern, elaborate, high tech, clean and simple, dirty and even  bare bones covered (shaded) tables where things like fresh herbs are packed right out of the field.

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Farm, Featured, News

Challenging Transition on the Foreground

April 20, 2022

Mature southern fruit + late Nayarit entrance = complex changeover

By definition the word foreground insinuates a seemingly larger position of prominence.  I choose to use that word here as it’s important that we all understand the complexities that are looming in the mango world, as Mexico prepares to transition from the southern producing regions to the northern ones.

By no means it is a dire situation facing us, at least not for us, but it is one that will require us to work together in cooperation in order to keep things smooth for  increasing sales and consumer satisfaction; consumers, who this time of year begin to consume more and more mangoes, as we need them to.

The northern regions of Nayarit and southern Sinaloa start back-to-back. They  are rather large and long producing regions with extraordinary outputs in quantity. That wall of mangoes that ensues when these regions begin general production lasts around 3-4 months (and often longer) and coincides with peak consumer consumption or what we know as SUMMERTIME.

They key to moving through the upcoming transitional complexities and lack with enough finesse so that we can keep consumers happy, register pricing moving downward and mangoes flowing in and out quickly; so that we are ready for the even bigger displays, and even lower prices that move them rapidly into the hands and mouths of mango eaters, is as usual the sharing of real and accurate information from the ground in Mexico.

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Featured, News

Pick Your Promotion!

March 16, 2022

Crespo Organic 2022 Season Promotional Calendar is Out!

Bits and pieces or the whole package… we have what you need, and it’s not just #MuchosMangoes sales! We can help you build and shape durable mango programs that educate, engage and entice your shoppers all season long and keep them coming back for more. Season after season you’ll be met with a reputable, reliable brand—a Direct-Trade program, no less—from orchard to table. It’s the real thing!

Download Your Interactive PDF Promo_Calendar2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Featured, News

Empaque Don Jorge II Opens for the 2022 Season

January 24, 2022

Packing Crespo Organic Ataulfo & Tommy Atkins Mangoes!

Ocozocoautla de Espinosa (Coita), Chiapas, Mexico

 In 2019, just prior to the mango season, El Grupo Crespo opened Empaque Don Jorge II (EDJ II) in Ocozocoautla de Espinosa, Chiapas, or – as the locals call it – Coita. As the Crespo family’s second proprietary mango pack house moves into it’s 4th season with efficiency and expertise and begins packing mangoes along side our partner packhouse in Oaxaca, it does so with expanded organic  mango volumes and increased packing outputs.

EDJ II is not to be confused with Empaque Don Jorge (EDJI) –  El Grupo Crespo’s original and main packhouse located in El Rosario, Sinaloa, Mexico. EDJ I’s  was revamped and modernized several years ago, making it Latin America’s largest and most advanced hydrothermal mango packhouse. EDJ II is smaller but equally powerful and is expecting it’s own enlargement and modernization in the seasons ahead.

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Featured, News

Time to Brush Up On Ataulfo Marketing

January 18, 2022

 

Shortcut to success, Ataulfo Marketing 101

This is an industry geared post.

Even though it is currently cold in most states and fresh snow has blanketed much of the US, spring is definitely coming. It always does and when it does mango sales increase.  The way we crave comfort food in the winter is exactly the way we crave healthy and vibrant foods in the spring and succulent juicy, thirst quenching fruits in the summer.  Mangoes are  healthy and vibrant and thirst quenching and juicy and Ataulfos are the most vibrant and healthy mangoes we have access to in our organic marketplace and the most rewarding summer time fruit.

The buttery smooth Ataulfo flesh  makes them extremely versatile for cooking and they are easy to please consumers price wise with  sizing at 14/16/18/20 vs 8/9/10/12. The Crespo Organic Ataulfo program is robust. Not only do we take sizing and quality seriously but we have invested in the consistency of volume necessary to build sales and large season long  national programs.

The Crespo Organic seasons starts in late January and moves through  mid-August, so its also long one- worthy of some attention, especially as Ataulfos take off as the fastest growing organic varietal among consumers.

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Featured, News

2022 Crespo Organic Season Starts!

January 11, 2022

We’ve got good news and who doesn’t love that these days!

NEWS FLASH!

Before the new year I gave you my big juicy predications for the 2022 Crespo Organic Mango season and so far things are ringing true. In a string of years where everything is extraordinarily complicated, this feels really good. I know challenges are a normal part of the business but  I believe in pointing out  and celebrating when the good things happen too. This is one of those rare GOOD news flashes.

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Farm, Featured, News

Winter Off-Shore Crop Update

December 28, 2021

As we near our Mexican season, what’s happening south matters

I don’t think there could be a more unusual offshore mango season than the one that is currently happening. Perhaps it’s not unusual in the grand {supply chain} scheme of things considering ports and vessel issues are  one of the main problems.

Currently Ecuadorian fruit, which has been riddled with quality problems still lingers. Assumptions are it will be finished in the next week. Peru which began early, is now assumed to be in peak mode. But you wouldn’t really see that in terms of our marketplace. There is indeed significant volume out of Peruvian mango orchards  this year, but there is a serious shortage of vessel space in particular to the USA, which means there is very little fruit in comparison to years past.

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Farm, Featured, News

Big & Juicy Predictions for the New Year

December 28, 2021

2022 Mexican mango crop forecast seems to looking sweet

(Click here to read my offshore crop update)

Predictions for the new year rain down hard during this time of year. Experts and non-experts alike – not to mention annoying influencers – are all giving us their hot takes on the year ahead. Like clockwork, each year at this time, food, weather, clothes, politics, marketing trends, astrological prophesies and more are prognosticated upon.

In our particular industry, we are often bombarded with articles and trend predictions that ruminate on the next big it fruit or vegetable. Countless marketing newsletters flood our inboxes with opinions on whether the plant-based EVERYTHING fad is here to stay, on whether potato milk be the new oat milk, and on what item will replace mushrooms as the hippest health trend in produce?

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