Supplies of Mexican mangoes in the Canadian market are steady.
Giorgio Ceciarelli of GC Imports based in Toronto, Canada says supplies are as usual currently and production has moved to a new region of Mexico. Before this, supplies came from the Southern states which included Chiapas and Oaxaca and Mexican supplies competed with volume coming in from countries such as Peru. Ceciarelli notes that due to COVID-19, which has forced the closure of restaurants in Canada and created new ways of shopping for consumers, moving mangoes in the late winter and early spring was a challenge. “March and April were very difficult months,” he says, adding that, like many growers and distributors across North America, GC Imports donated inventory to local foodbanks in those months.
Now stage two of Mexican mango production is underway from the middle part of Mexico where Ceciarelli says good supplies are coming from. “We have Ataulfo or honey mangoes as well as Tommy Atkins and Kent mangoes,” he says. “Kents are starting from Michoacán and Tommys and Ataulfo are coming from Nayarit and Sinaloa.” While supplies are steady, Ceciarelli adds that there are some minor slowdowns in demand for mangoes. “Sometimes demand stops all of a sudden and then it starts up again,” he says.
Stabilizing once again
Overall, he estimates that all things considered, the market is moving well and at about 85 percent of what a normal year would move. “But it’s been stable and steady."
Meanwhile demand from chain stores has also been steady thanks, in part, to promotions. “But the ethnic markets aren’t pulling and the restaurants that normally consume quite a bit still have decreased volumes,” says Ceciarelli.
As for pricing, while pre-COVID-19, pricing on mangoes had been higher, the pandemic has thrown pricing off. “But little by little the market has stabilized, and the prices are now more or less where they’ve been every year,” says Ceciarelli. “We’re at the same level, maybe a little bit cheaper than other years because there’s less demand.”
For more information:
Giorgio Ceciarelli
GC Imports
Tel: +1 (416) 649 5775
[email protected]
www.gcimports.ca