Vision Import Group sees promotional opportunities ahead
Vision Import Group sees promotional opportunities ahead
Without hesitation, Ronnie Cohen, who is vice president of sales for Vision Import Group LLC in River Edge, NJ, and a former chairman of the National Mango Board, said the time to promote mangos is now often. “Promote! Promote! Promote!” he said.
It has long been known that the retail sales of mangos are very dependent upon promotions. The better the perceived value by the U.S. consumer, the more likely they are to buy the world’s most popular fruit. Cohen said the fall months should offer ample opportunities to promote for most retailers.
Speaking in early September, he said Brazilian mangos had been in the marketplace for a couple of weeks. With Mexico’s shipments winding down, the market strengthened quite a bit but Cohen said that by the end of the month Ecuador will start shipping and the price should come down a little bit. “I think we will be tight for about three to four weeks,” he said Sept. 5. “Then it will loosen up.”
While Brazil’s volume might be down some from last year, he believes Ecuador will have a very good crop.
Cohen just returned from a trip to Ecuador, where he said the trees were heavy with fruit. “There have been great growing conditions in Ecuador this year. I think there will be an increase in volume, but the fruit appears that it will be on the small side.”
Ecuador should have good supplies from early October through November. By then Peru will get going, continuing the fall barrage of South American mangos.
As far as promotions go, Cohen said the red-skinned mango will garner most of the promotional support as those are the varieties most appealing to the U.S. consumer. “But every year we see more volume and more promotions of the (yellow-skinned) Ataulfo. I think that will continue.”
In fact, Cohen’s dream is for the mango industry one day to be similar to that of the stone fruit industry, with different varieties dominating during specific windows of opportunity. He said South American mango growers are experimenting with several different varieties that he expects to make some inroads in the U.S. marketplace in years to come. “You see some different varieties from Brazil going to Europe and I think they will eventually come here. And in Ecuador we are experimenting with the Francine variety, which is big in Haiti. We should have some of those next year. It might take five or 10 or 15 years, but at some point we should have a lot more varieties and I can see a little island of mango displays in the produce department.”
