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Crop Report

Farm, Featured, News

Mexican (Organic) Mango Crop Update

February 2, 2024

Amidst adversity, signs of hope blossom

One grower described this season to me like this “completely impossible to predict much of anything in the orchards.” Most agree that predictions of any kind are not easy to make, particularly this season, as has been demonstrated in the chaos of contracts and commitments.

As more of us engage in processing larger quantities of Mexican mangoes, additional information is gathered. That information is useful. At present, the best I can offer is sharing my most up-to-date intel from the orchards.

Despite the challenges, there is more of the same (bad) news plus a glimmer of hope in the form of brilliant, beautiful mango blossoms.

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Featured, News

Season Opener – The Consumer Favorite

January 24, 2024

Ataulfo’s offer up  a mega does of #MangoJoy amidst serious season complexities

The onset of the Mexican mango season is anticipated to bring significant complexity and is expected to persist as such for several months. First up, as always Mexico’s yellow slipper, the Ataulfo mango. A beloved consumer favorite and one of the fastest growing mango varietals in the US market.

As Ataulfo mangoes are picked and packed and transported up Mexico and across the border to retailers nationwide, they navigate through the challenges of a turbulent Peruvian season. Unfortunately, the Peruvian season, impacted severely by merciless El Niño weather during blooming stages, has not yielded any sufficient volume, leaving large empty pipelines throughout the global mango industry. Traditionally, the US market during this period is flooded with lower-priced Peruvian fruit, but the current scenario sees Peruvian growers struggling with volumes and unable to meet even a portion of the worldwide demand, leading to chaos with farmers searching for the highest bidder in markets across Europe, Asia, and the USA.

The challenging Peruvian situation in the US market puts immense pressure on the commencement of the Mexican season. Retailers find themselves not only attempting to bridge the gap but also facing total panic for the upcoming months when mangoes are typically the most promotable fruit. Contracts are in disarray, and a veil of silence shrouds the realities south of the border, contributing to unprecedented market confusion.

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Farm, Featured, News

“Little” Fruit Brings Opportunity

May 31, 2023

Crespo mango expertise bridges transition into Summer Mango Mania

 I’ve been selling organic mangoes for a long time and, as so many of us forget, the greatest season-long program success happens when you nail the transitions. It’s the performance during the transition that dictates what stores have fruit and at what price. Just like in music, those connecting notes, the transitions is what leads you to the next phase of the whole. We take the transitions seriously, we get creative and we utilize the partnerships we forget with customers, making it work. Clear communication, more than anything is pivotal for any transitional success, in particular when there are volume supply or quality issues at play. The direct relationships to customers and the nimble work we do together, with the trust of the consumers who fuel our program, make the transitions easier to maneuver through so we can build and grow successful organic Mexican mango programs…. This is what we are known for.

The Crespo’s fully and vertically integrated supply chain and direct-trade selling system is what makes them the mango experts. It’s because of that expertise we will not skip a beat in the final days of the great mango transition, which is when a regional production shift from southern Oaxaca & Chiapas to Northern Nayarit and Sinaloa happens.

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Farm, Featured, News

The BIG Transition North

May 3, 2023

Will Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Nayarit line up for a smooth transition?

The nature of transition is tricky. Shifting mango production from the southern Mexican regions to the northern ones is often unpredictable and complex. This year we move into with a great deal of positivity and yet a tinge of trepidation. I think the trepidation is more implanted into all of us because of the last several months or utter unpredictability that resulted in many challenges for the industry.

Transitioning mango production from southern to northern regions in Mexico is often a tricky and complex process. As we embark on this year’s transition, we are filled with positivity, yet there is also a sense of trepidation. The challenges of the past few months have left their mark on the industry, and we all carry a certain level of uncertainty with us.

Last year the transition was brutal, as I reported here- Under The Mango Tree.  We managed but it wasn’t easy or pretty. This year we get a break.

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Culture, Featured, Kitchen, News, People

#CelebrateMexico #CelebrateMangoes

April 5, 2023

The Cinco de Mayo show goes on, despite supply complexities

A single mango goes a long way: in recipes and in creating #MangoJoy for consumers. Mangoes don’t have to be dirt cheap or in heaping abundance for a consumer to feel the sweet tropical satisfaction and joy that comes from eating and using mangoes.

As I previously reported, Easter is the threshold for volume turnaround. For the most part, that is still the case. The main problem is that the Easter packhouse closings intersect with the lowest volume weeks of fruit. This means the low volume weeks we have experienced are bashing up against less fruit and orchard/packhouse shutdowns for a few days. This means next week (the week after Easter) will be the most difficult week for fruit volume fulfillments industry wide.

Oaxaca and Chiapas are a 3-5 day drive to Nogales & McAllen, and fruit has to be picked, packed, and shipped before anyone can get their hands on it. The math is simple and with an already empty(ish) pipeline and unprecedented demand, we anticipate that it will take a few weeks to fill up. This puts us directly into the Cinco De Mayo push, which means we do not expect a “flush” of product until after Cinco De Mayo. But I say that with caution as the timing puts is directly in the beginning of the transition from the southern regions into the Northern ones with the onset of Nayarit Ataulfos. Continue Reading…

Farm, Featured, News

A “Big” Crop Report

March 10, 2023

The lack of small fruit is real and size Up-ortunities are too!

There is a significant and serious lack of small fruit coming out of mango orchards in the south (Chiapas & Oaxaca) right now. As a result, there is a lot of confusion and panic in the market. This is mostly because pricing remains higher than average and bigger fruit and higher prices mean more expensive pieces of fruit.

We’ve received new intel, including photos and video from our Crespo boots on the ground or in this case Roberto Crespo. His information has been coming in the last several weeks as we’ve been trying to better access the small fruit situation. It’s been coordinated and agreed upon by all Crespo’s as well as several other large and medium sized conventional and organic producers in the south. It all true, the small fruit shortage!

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Farm, Featured, News

The Little Fruit Season

June 8, 2021

A real time peak into the Mexican mango orchards

Back in April, right before the transition from the southern regions to the northern regions, we reported about the little Ataulfo mangoes and the drought that was causing them. We further reported that the transition north would result in similar sizing on not just Ataulfos but the round mangoes as well and that the same drought, is running up the continent.

Eventually the rest of the industry followed our lead and  starting talking and reporting about the northern regions alarming predictions for small fruit. Here we are now a few weeks into the Nayarit season and we still encounter disbelievers, folks that want to order 6 and 7cnts and are not willing to budge.

Trust us, trust the others, the fruit is small. In Nayarit and Sinaloa.

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Farm, Featured, News

Smooth Transition North

May 11, 2021

Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Nayarit line up for consistency in supply

By nature, transitions can be tricky. Shifting from the southern regions to the northern regions is typically unpredictable and complex. This year, it is proving to be exactly that.

The southern regions have produced a good amount of fruit, mostly on the smaller side and mostly because people like us (Crespo) have strategically increased our orchards there, in order to gain greater volume earlier, capture a bigger percentage of market share immediately, and jumpstart consumer demand sooner. There have been complexities as usual but we maneuver through them fairly well, mostly because of the direct-trade relationships we have with our customers, and the communication and exchange of information on the challenges and opportunities in advance allowing us to together, strategize, knowing each customer and region has different needs.

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