Ronald Cohen, vice president of sales-member of River Edge, N.J.-based Vision Import Group, which works hand-in-hand with Vision Produce Co. in Los Angeles, predicted “measured growth” in mango business for the two companies.

He said the company is perfecting its grower model and has seen growth each year. “We’ve had different partnerships and have put in different business models each year,” he said. “They all have their challenges but we continue to grow. We’re growing every year.”

He said the company was more of a boutique mango importer, but it has strengthened relationships with growers in many different mango-producing regions, as well as added new grower deals. In Mexico this year, Cohen said, for example, “We have a much larger program than we had a year ago. We are increasing each year incrementally.”

He indicated that the steady growth enables the firm to properly take care of both its growers and its customers. The Vision companies are taking that same model to other producing regions. In fact, when talking to The Produce News on May 19, Cohen had just returned from a trip visiting growers in Brazil. He said that it was too early to accurately forecast the size of Brazil’s crop and the numbers that South American country will send to the United States.

Brazil produces and ships mangos throughout the year, though its most lucrative window to export to the United States is typically in September and October. “They have lots of options so it is hard to tell how much volume they will send to the United States, but I don’t think it will be up significantly,” Cohen said.

Of course, it all depends on the marketing situation in the United States. Cohen attributed the difficult early months of the Mexican deal to some outside influences, including a bumper crop of Guatemalan mangos. He said that Central American country had a good volume crop in a shorter timeframe than usual, causing a lot of arrivals on the East Coast in a short period of time. That, he said, made it difficult for Mexican producers to compete in the eastern United States, which resulted in a decline in f.o.b. prices.

But Cohen said the situation was beginning to turn around and he predicted a nice summer in terms of movement, volume and price. “I think we will see some good price points [for promotion] all summer long,” he said.