The UK mango market is enjoying supplies of new-season fruit from South Africa and Puerto Rico as well as the peak of the Peruvian season.

"We’ve had very good hot, dry weather in South Africa which is great for fruit quality, however it might mean we end the season a little shorter," said Westfalia UK’s Simon Curry. "We are looking at similar volume to last year."

The season started last week with Tommy Atkins and moves into availability of Kent this week and then Keitt later on.

There is also plenty of fruit available from Peru, reported Wealmoor’s Mark Horton. "We have had a slight dip in shipping quantities this week because of strong demand in the US, but Peru is a key place for good quality fruit," he said.

Wealmoor is sourcing mainly Kent from the Pura region in the Andean foothills. "The soils are very good and they get good light, and some of the best blushes on the variety," he added.

Horton expects the season to last until the middle of March and is also bringing in Keitt from Puerto Rico. Wealmoor sources from Puerto Rico from December through to September. The company also procures from South Africa and is offering early Tommy Atkins.

"Puerto Rico will be pumping out more volume soon," explained Horton. "We can manipulate the crop so that whenever there are shortages of Keitt elsewhere, we can induce the fruit to come on earlier."

At Minor Weir & Willis, Chris Abram reports that the company is "fully into" supplies from Puerto Rico after an early December start. I

t is also offering Peruvian and South African fruit at this point in the season and has just started offering specific supermarket customers Pearl, a sought-after Australian variety.

"We started with Pearl from Australia about a week ago," said Abram. "It is a highly blushed variety that we started working two years ago. It comes by air freight and is only available for another month.

"We are sourcing from Queensland and will have supplies for about another month. It is at the premium end of the market."

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