Mexican mango deal winds down for Higueral Produce
Mexican mango deal winds down for Higueral Produce
RIO RICO, AZ — Mexico’s mango season has ended for Higueral Produce Inc. Edgar Duarte, a partner in the firm, said Sept. 30 that he’d just received his last truckload of mangos for this season.
“Overall the prices were very good over the last two months,” he said. “The volume was a little lower than last year, but it was still good.”
Edgar Duarte, a partner in Higueral Produce Inc., in his Rio Rico, AZ, warehouse Sept. 30, showing Higueral’s last Mexican mangos of its 2015 mango season.
Mexico mango quality was “very good” this season and noticeably better than it had been over the last couple of years, he added.
“The market was especially good from the late northern areas that are not hot-water treated,” Duarte said. In Sinaloa, the area between Guasave and Los Mochis is fruit-fly-free and U.S. Department of Agriculture phytosanitary protocols do not require hot-water treatment to disinfest that area’s mangos.
“South of that, including Culiacan, hot water is required,” he noted.
Buyers appreciate that fruit that has not been bathed in hot water has a longer shelf life. Thus, they are willing to pay more for this fruit.
Higueral ships mangos under the “Del Rio” brand.
Duarte said the Mexican mango deal gets larger every year as established trees increase production and growers plant new trees. He credits the National Mango Board’s promotional work for building demand, and he expects it will be at least several years before supply catches up with demand for Mexican mangos in the United States and Canada.
In early or mid-November, Higueral will begin shipping chili peppers and a few tomatoes from Sinaloa. The firm also distributes limes from Jalisco.
While he said it is difficult to generalize, mid-September rains delayed vegetable production by a week or 10 days.
Duarte said his firm is looking for a location to build its own warehouse. The firm has leased refrigerated space over its nine-year lifetime. The rent is so expensive that it would pay for a new facility in a number of years.
Real estate in Rio Rico is “saturated” with cold warehouses so finding a good location is a challenge for a new facility, he noted.
