In light of the mango recall that occurred at the end of the 2012 season, San Diego-based Coast Tropical has spent much of its time, energy and resources in 2013 making sure all of its mango providers have top notch food safety programs in place and have achieved all the necessary certifications.

The crowning event of that effort was the construction of a dedicated state-of-the-art packing facility in the Los Mochis district in Northern Sinaloa in Mexico.

That area was the point of origin for the 2012 recall so Coast Tropical decided to invest in its own packingshed where it would have complete control of the exported product.

“It is completely automated,” said Isabel Freeland, vice president and chief financial officer of the firm.

She said a sophisticated computer setup monitors every aspect of the facility, including sanitation. “If something isn’t right alarms go off,” she said.

While the facility was expensive, Freeland said the piece of mind it offers is worth the investment, which she expects to pay off in the long run. “More and more of the major retailers are demanding that the packing facilities go beyond the first level of food safety and reach higher levels, including HACCP and GFS certification. That is what we are doing. Our facility should be the envy of every packingshed in Mexico.”

Freeland added that every carton from every shipment can be traced back to its source through the automated system.

She said the 2013 Mexican season is winding down and there were no problems with the crop. In fact, she said good demand, good volume and pretty good markets defined the seven month deal.

With the harvest moving to South America for September and the fall months, Freeland said Coast Tropical is equally vigilant with the packing facilities it uses in those countries. “They are not automated and rely on many manual operations, but food safety is still our top concern.”

Coast Tropical does source from Brazil in September and early October, but it is a much bigger player in Ecuador. “For us the Brazilian deal is about six weeks long before we transition to Ecuador, where we are very big,” she said.

Freeland said Ecuador shipments would begin in week 39, which means they would ship from the South American country around Sept. 23, landing in U.S. distribution centers around Oct. 7. The Ecuadorian deal will last about eight weeks before it begins to overlap with the start of Peruvian shipments in early December.

“We are very excited (for the Ecuadorian season). The crop looks very, very good. We should have a 10 percent increase in volume,” she said. “We expect to bring in about 420 containers (from Ecuador) throughout that season.”

As is typically the case, the Coast Tropical executive said, the Brazilian mangos in the early part of their season are relatively high priced, but as Ecuador enters into the mix the price will drop and there will be some great promotional opportunities for retailers. “There should be great consistent pricing from at least the middle of October through the middle of December,” she added.