Retail giant Tesco plans to more than treble its UK Thai mango imports this year in an effort to broaden the fruit’s appeal to mainstream British consumers.
Tesco mango buyer Paul Jones said Thai mangoes will be promoted in approximately 500 Tesco stores across the UK during an 11-week period this season. This compares to a three-week sales window last year.
“This year is our biggest year ever for Thai mangoes. It is without a doubt a growth category,” Mr Jones told Fruitnet.com.
Tesco sold 65 per cent of its total 2010 Thai mango volumes during the first week of 2011 sales, which started on February 28, he said.
Mr Jones attributes this impressive new season start to consumer recognition, stronger promotional deals and increased shelf-space in stores.
“People are familiar with the fruit because we’ve ranged it before, and this year we have doubled its allocated shelf space. We are trebling our import volumes,” he said.
Tesco is selling the yellow, fibreless and fragrant Nam Doc Mai and Maha Cha Nok varieties in its UK stores, which arrive by airfreight.
“A few years ago you would find that the customers buying Thai mangoes were predominately from ethnic backgrounds,” said Mr Jones. “This year, by rolling the fruit out across some 500 stores, we want to open the eyes of UK mainstream consumers to this great product. It is a different kind of mango.”
Tesco’s UK mango sales are expected to peak during the retailer’s annual in-store Thai fruit campaign, which this year runs from mid-April to mid-May.
The three-to-four-week event, which launched some four years ago and is co-organised by the UK Thai Embassy, promotes Thai fruits through multi-buy deals, merchandising and tastings.
This year, Tesco will use the event to promote Thai mangoes, dragon fruit and lychees.
“Our Thai event coincides with the seasonality of the products. Last year we chose to promote seven products, but this year we’ve decided to focus on three because the demand just wasn’t there for certain products and there was quite a lot of waste,” said Mr Jones.
Mangosteen and longan performed particularly poorly.
“This year we’re focusing on improving the sales of fewer Thai fruits,” he added.
