High price at origin of Spanish mangoes makes sales more difficult

The mango harvest in Malaga is lower than expected.Therefore, the entry into production of younger plantations has not prevented the volume from being smaller compared to last season.

"As a result of the low supply of mangoes in Spain, prices at origin are high and continue to rise, but the European markets are not willing to pay them," says Álvaro Martínez, manager of Axarfruit. "It is being difficult to defend these prices and the demand is not that great, since large distributors had expected more affordable prices this season," he says.

In the exporter's opinion, the mango seasons are better when large volumes are harvested. “It is better to have large volumes of mangoes since, although the price is lower, producers end up making more money, given the higher sales. Moreover, we also manage to sell more with more competitive prices. European importers can purchase mangoes for 4 or 5 Euro per box for much of the year, so trying to sell Spanish mangoes for a few weeks for 9 Euro per box is just not going to work, no matter how good they are. If the prices of Spanish mangoes are a little higher than those of other origins (between 6 and 7 Euro per box), then European buyers prefer ours because of the quality, proximity, diversity of sizes and speed of purchase operations, etc., but if we sell them at almost double the price, that's another story."

"It is being an intense campaign, but it will be shorter than usual due to the low production," says Álvaro Martínez. "It is worth noting however, that we are very happy with the quality and sizes of the fruit this year."

In about 10 days, Axarfruit will finish selling Osteen mangoes and will continue with the Keitt and, later, with the Palmer, a variety in which the Malaga-based company wants to continue investing in the coming campaigns. “The subtropical sector in Malaga has realized that the late mango varieties reach better prices compared to the early ones, such as the Osteen, which accounts for more than half of the total mango production. In recent years, more Keitt has been planted because of this, and the Palmer is also gradually being introduced. Our goal is to be able to cover the month of November with the Palmer and close a 3 month long Spanish mango campaign."

Good avocado sales
The Malaga-based company has already started marketing Bacon avocados from Malaga, while also importing Hass from Mexico, Colombia and Chile. According to the Axarfuit manager, “at the moment, conditions are very good in the avocado market. Peru is practically finished and the volumes coming from Chile and Colombia are not very large yet. We hope things will this way for at least another week. At the end of this month, we will start with the Hass avocados from Malaga.”

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