U.S. imported Mexican mangoes will increase dramatically through the spring and into the summer.
Peru’s mango shipments to the U.S. are winding down after peaking in late January. Due to heavy Peruvian mango volumes some imports from Mexico by the U.S. have been delayed.
The Mango Board reports Peru’s volume to the U.S. will increase by approximately 61 percent over to last year, from approximately 12 million boxes to 19.3 million boxes (4 kilograms/box).
Mexico’s eventual volume will be much bigger than Peru.
Mexican mango shipments to the U.S. have increased from just 277,000 metric tons in 2015 to 368,000 metric tons in 2019. Mexican mango shipments to the U.S. in 2019 were nearly 5 percent higher than 2018 shipments, the USDA reports.
In 2019, Mexico mango shipments to the U.S. reached a peak in July, when 18 percent of Mexico’s annual volume was shipped. After July, top volume months for Mexican mango shipments to the U.S. were June (16 percent), May (15 percent), August (15 percent) and April (12 percent).
With per capita mango availability rising from about half a pound in 1990 to more than three pounds in 2017, U.S. distributors believe there is room to increase imports of Mexican mangoes.
Mexico accounts for about two-thirds of total U.S. mango imports.
2019 Mexican Mango Imports
In 2019, Mexico exported 82 million boxes of mangoes to the U.S., which was an increase of 5 percent over the previous year.
Volume projections for quarter are expected to be similar to last year’s 10 million boxes, except the Michoacan season is delayed by two to three weeks, which will shift its volumes from March to April.
Looking Ahead
Ciruli Bros. of Nogales, AZ recently received it first shipment of ataulfo mangoes from Chiapas to south Texas and Nogales. The company now has good supplies of yellow mangoes from Chiapas that will continue into April for Easter, April 12th.
Mexican yellow mango volume should be about 15 percent higher than a year ago in March.
With Mexican mango imports recently growing 8 to 10 percent a year, Ciruli Bros. expects to have higher double-digit growth in mango volume this year.