During a scene from Agatha Christie’s The Theft of the Royal Ruby, the detective Poirot teaches an English family how to correctly cut into a mango. When they ask who showed him, he replies casually, “a duke”.
It is fitting that even a fictional character should have an aristocratic connection with the mango, given that it is widely known as the ‘king of fruit’.
Traditionally the fruit starts to appear in the UK from April, but with supplies coming in from India and Pakistan from June, consumers can still be picking up fresh mango in July. This year, a prized variety has been making headlines with its own festival taking place in London and Leicester. Growers and suppliers of the Alphonso shipped some 24,000 mangoes from Ratnagiri in the Maharashtra state in India for the recent events.
The festival organisers sold the products direct to the public, with people paying £5 for six mangoes and £8 for a dozen. A total of 16,800 mangoes were sold at the London festival and 7,200 in Leicester.
However, shoppers who could not make the events need not feel left out as Total Exotics, which supplies major supermarkets, says that should it have an opportunity to do so, it will be offering clients the Alphonso.
“If we can get them at the right quality and at good value then we will be offering to supply customers,” says commercial director Paul Nicholls. Nicholls says from late June another popular variety, the Chausa, will start to hit UK shores from Pakistan. So far, the season has been patchy, with product in short supply at times.
“April saw the end of the traditionally very important Peruvian season,” he adds.“This year was characterised by a later start and an abrupt conclusion. The end was particularly sudden, as consistent and affordable product from the late Casma region did not have a strong presence in 2013.
“This provoked a short market during late April and into May as European and UK receivers waited for the first West African goods, from Ivory Coast. Only limited Costa Rican mango reached the UK this year, so until the IC Kent variety is augmented with sendings of Keith from Puerto Rico and then Dominican Republic in late May and June, good-quality fruit from accredited sources will continue to be available via programmed supply chain arrangements or command premium prices from the spot trade.”
Israel will start to send its product from the end of May/June and West African mangoes will continue to come in from Mali and then Senegal throughout June and into July.
Nicholls says: “Overall 2013 has seen crop availability skewed towards the larger-calibre fruit, with longer count – pre-pack size mango – being harder to secure for the UK customer. The Peruvian season exemplified this trend although we did see a more even consistency in fruit condition and maturity as the season progressed.”
The good news is that prices have remained reasonable with Nicholls commenting that while the spot values of mango this year have occasionally reached significant peaks, the product coming from reliable supply chains have enabled good fruit to be secured at competitive values.
“This underscores the importance of building strong plans with reliable supply chain partners,” he says.
With affordable prices, the ‘King of Fruits’ continues to delight everyday consumers as well as royalty. —
