FreshFruitPortal.com spoke with the president of the Peruvian Association of Mango Producers and Exporters (AEPM), Ivan Vilchez, who says the mango campaign has developed harvests in the three main areas of Piura, Motupe, and Casma.

"We are just starting the first weeks and Motupe has two weeks harvesting and Casma just during the week we have the first kilos of fruit that is advanced."

He added that "as APEM we projected 60,800 tons, and at the end of week 2 we have almost 25 million kilos, which means that we are at almost 43% of the Peruvian mango campaign."

He explained that they had projected a decrease of 76% compared to last season.

"The fruit from Piura, Motupe, and Casma has been advanced two weeks, this has caused that we had some more volume in the first weeks, but in recent weeks we have had a behavior where we have matched the projected with the executed, with very short differentials of 3% difference."

Vílchez adds "We hope that Casma can have the projected volumes and that they will allow us to reach the executed and projected volumes. We foresee that in the following weeks, Piura's volume will decrease, Motupe's volume will decrease and Casma's should start to grow in terms of harvest".

Exports

The president of AEPM pointed out that the main markets are the United States and Europe, where most of the exports are concentrated. "There is also a point to emphasize, that the market shipped by plane has taken a large proportion of what we have had in volume. The mango market by air is a very important market, but this year we have had less volume, in general the figures have fallen quite a lot, we have not reached the volumes of other years, but the little we have had the plane has been a good alternative".