RIO RICO, AZ — Cost cutting can be a key component in increasing mango consumption, observes Edgar Duarte, a partner in Higueral Produce, Inc., located here.

“The growers always want higher prices. And the consumer has to have a lower cost,” he noted. Leave it to the man in the middle to be creative in his thinking.

Packaging is part of the cost equation. Duarte suggests that some segments of the industry may want to reconsider mango packaging.

While much of the industry packs mangos in 10-pound flats, few retailers actually merchandise from those “display” packages, Duarte said. Instead, bulk displays are the norm.

On Feb. 18 Edgar Duarte, a partner in Higueral Produce, Inc., in Rio Rico, AZ, stood in his refrigerated warehouse with pallets of the firm’s Del Rio brand limes. By the end of February, Higueral expected to be shipping mangos under the Del Rio brand.The ten-pound box costs in the range of 30 or 40 cents, he said. If mangos were shipped in 1 1/9-bushel, or boxes containing 40-plus pounds, the box cost would be about one dollar. The difference in package cost is about .035 cents a pound vs. .025 cents a pound when using the large box. That is a 40 percent savings in basic packaging cost.

Higueral ships “rock hard” green mangos to the Asian market in 1 1/9 boxes. But Duarte feels riper mangoes also have the durability to be shipped in larger packages without crushing the fruit.

Duarte said the clamshells used by retailers like Sam’s Club have an important role in the mango business. But, there is a means to reduce cost and also ease the logistics of packaging and moving mangos.

Duarte liked once seeing Safeway experiment in Nogales with merchandising a short bin of mangos. But that was not a test he saw repeated.

Higueral has no immediate plans to make a radical shift in packaging. But Duarte is promoting the benefits thereof.

Higueral was started seven years ago by four partners; two of these being Mexican growers. Duarte joined the firm six months later “and they made me a partner.” The initial product shipped from Nogales by Higueral was hot peppers and tomatillos. Mangos have grown to become the firm’s second-largest volume item behind chilies. The company also ships Roma tomatoes, squash and Persian limes.

In February, Higueral was starting seasonal shipping of Ataulfo mangos from Chiapas. The firm will follow the typical deal as it moves to southern Sinaloa, then northern Sinaloa this summer. “We’ve been shipping mangoes for six or seven months a year over the last two and a half years,” Duarte said. Higueral ships “Del Rio” brand mangos and limes.

Its chilies and Romas are shipped under the “Villanos” brand.

The mango season “looks good,” Duarte said, with no negative issues. The greatest destructive concern in Mexico’s mango business is summertime hurricanes.

Higueral ships three or four loads of mangos a day in season.

Duarte said Mexican mango production is increasing about 10 or 15 percent per year. As more and more trees are planted, “consumption is not going up that fast.” But Duarte applauds the work of the National Mango Board to promote mango consumption in North America. He noted that the positive health studies on mangos have been a strong topic for the mango campaign.

Higueral is increasingly focused on boosting direct sales to supermarkets.   “It will be easier to go straight from the ranch to the chain,” he noted.