|
LATEST MANGO SEASON
UPDATE,
In 2014, we are planning 10 varieties from
India. Importing top quality fruit continues to be a challenging
endeavor with plenty of risk for us. We have persisted for 6 seasons and worked hard to
develop the supply chain for each variety. We implement the lessons learnt
from previous seasons earnestly into every new season. We plan
diligently for a full year and in a few weeks the season is poof
"gone". We are very optimistic about this year as our demand is strong
and we have been able to take good steps to identify and register
quality orchards for export to the US this year.
Following is an update on the 2014 fresh mango season. Most of the orchards
recommended by us have been registered for export to the US. We will be
conducting our final orchard tour in a few weeks and then we are ready for
export. We expect the shipments to start by 3rd week of April.
Alphonso Mango: Flowering is
delayed in Ratnagiri, but it is good so far. According to initial estimates
the first crop will probably be ready by end of April, in time for our first
planned shipment.
Mancurad Mango: The Mancurad received in 2013 was
excellent. We will be planning a few shipments of Mancurad in 2014 based on demand, but
from the initial response so far, we expect to sell out very quickly.
Kesar Mango: This year we will be getting
Junagarh Kesar along with Kesar from Valsad and Aurangabad. Junagarh Kesar comes
from the geographical Gir Area in the state of Gujarat. This Kesar is smaller in
size but extremely flavorful and is GI protected. Our Kesar from Gujarat got
high praise in 2013. We will be getting more Kesar from good orchards again
this year.
Banganpalli Mango: We have added more
Banganpalli orchards in the Kadapa region as also in the Hyderabad and Rajahmundry belt.
Hopefully this prepares us better to handle variation in weather. We have also added orchards in the
Rajahmundry that have a late-season Banganapalli variety- hopefully that will help us get
the fruit for a longer period of time this year. One of the orchards is also exclusively
rain-fed, which promises sweeter and more durable fruit.
Rasalu Mango: In 2013, we
had a high demand for Rasalu, but there was unseasonal hail which affected the crop. Rasalu is
a very sensitive variety and after hail, although the fruit looks good when green, but black hail marks.
show up when the fruit matures. The taste remains good, but the appearance is affected.
This year we have added more orchards in Nuzvid, Hyderabad and Kadapa for Rasalu to insulate us from
weather related scarcity of fruit.
Langra Mango: We have added more Langra orchards towards Benaras
this year. The Langra continues to be highly sensitive and therefore we have added an additional
quality step this year to filter out bad fruit.
Dussehri Mango:
Initially, we got excellent shipments in 2013. However premature monsoons affected the quality of later shipments.
This year, we hope that the weather will not play spoilsport, but we have added additional steps at the end of the
supply chain in India. We are hopeful that this will result in
more consistent quality during the season.
Chausa Mango: After a few great years, last year Chausa was the
most affected by the premature monsoons, especially since it is a late variety and the US inspector
seems to be ready to leave end of June. We have identified additional quality checks after consulting
with experts- we are also looking to see if we can continue to get Chausa after the US inspector has
left India in June. Peak season for Chausa is July.
Neelam Mango: We could not get any Neelam in 2013 despite our best
efforts. We have redoubled our efforts and will be working to get a shipment and of June.
Pakistani Mango: The supply chain continues to be challenging. We were
unable to get any mango from Pakistan in 2012 and 2013. The last shipment came in 2011. We did have
the license to import all these years, but the supply chain did not work out despite efforts at both ends.
We feel that we have a very good chance to make the supply chain work in 2014 and are working with
USDA to make this happen. We have not announced the Pakistani Mango season yet, but will do so as
soon as we have some confidence that the new supply-chain routing will work.
Australian Mango:
Australian mango import is still being worked out by USDA. We are
interested in 2 varieties- Kengington Pride and R2E2 (apparantly this
is even more out-of-the-world than R2D2!!).
|
