Splendid gearing up for increased volume
Splendid gearing up for increased volume
Splendid Products LLC, headquartered in Burlingame, CA, has had an excellent Peruvian mango deal so far this year and expects Mexico to also yield increased supplies this season.
“Our volume is up significantly this year from Peru and we expect the same from Mexico,” said Larry Nienkerk, owner and manager of the operation, on Feb. 21. “After this week our volume will begin to diminish in Peru and pick up in Mexico.”
He said the company has focused on improved quality this year in an effort to land a better mango deal in the United States. “We made a considerable investment to improve the receiving quality. We want the quality to be more consistent this year.”
The main focus of that improvement was the installation of forced air, pre-cooling units at some of the facilities where it packs its fruit. Nienkerk said pre-cooling units are not the norm in Mexico as most sheds are only equipped with refrigerated cold storage. Most mangos, he said, are placed in the cold storage overnight to cool them down. “We want to take that initial heat out of the fruit as quickly as we can.”
The company, which has always been fairly heavy with shipments in the latter stages of the Mexican deal, has added to its front-end supplies this year. In mid- to late February, Nienkerk said the firm was currently pulling Tommy Hadens (red-skinned mangos) from Michoacán and Ataulfos (yellow-skinned mangos) from Oaxaca. The firm was expecting big increases from the Michoacan facility as the season wears on.
Like other veterans in the industry, Nienkerk is extremely complimentary of the job the National Mango Board is doing to increase sales. He noted that supplies continue to increase each year and the f.o.b. price has remained strong, and even increased as well. “The board has done a fabulous job of getting information out to the trade, which has helped increase sales at both retail and foodservice. The mango is a wonderful piece of fruit and more and more people are accepting it as one of the top items in the produce department. The mango is going to continue to climb in the fruit category and I don’t think it will be too long before it ranks with the other top fruit categories.”
Splendid will be pulling from Mexico through September following the harvest as it moves from the southern districts to the more northern production area. The company has long been a leader in volume in the most northern production area of Los Mochis in northern Sinaloa.
