Mexico is expecting a 10% year-on-year rise in its exports to the U.S. despite rain last month in some key growing areas, the Packers and Exporters Association (EMEX) has claimed.

EMEX president Jorge Armando Celis Moreno said he expected his organization to export an extra 5 million cases (4.3 kilograms) this season.

"The mango is relatively new to American citizens. Originally, only Mexicans, Latinos and Asians ate mangoes in the U.S. but in the last five years this has changed."

He said this was due to a concerted marketing strategy which had paid off.

"The National Mango Board’s consumer campaign on television and working with supermarkets has increased people's awareness and knowledge about how to consume mangoes."

He added that other markets such as Canada were now consuming mangoes too, estimating that Canada imports about 5 million boxes a year and that Japan too had been increasing imports.

EMEX said that rains last month in the southern states had not materially affected crops or the quality of the Ataulfo variety.

Mexico's exports are in stark contrast to Peru whose mango exports for 2011-12 dropped by about half due to difficult weather conditions.

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Photo: National Mango Board

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