South African avocado and mango specialist Westfalia says its shipments of fresh mangoes have generally decreased in volume - but dried mangoes have developed into a globally strong market.
Simon Curry, marketing manager at Westfalia UK, told FPJ: “We don’t export fresh mangoes on speculation anymore, only on specific programmes. We are continuing our work on variety research, and will be bringing over small test volumes of new cultivars, such as Princess, Shelley and HoneyGold, which we are only growing in small volumes at the moment, to UK supermarkets.”
While demand for South African avocados did rise last year, Curry says it was only half the growth level the industry has come to expect. “In 2008, we are expecting a similar avocado season to last year, with more greenskins to wholesale and similar volumes of Hass to retail. However, high frost levels in 2007 have had a knock-on impact on the crop.
“But we are expecting great things of our dried fruit, avocado oils and guacamole this year. Some of these lines are in retails anyway, but this is the first year we will market them more under our own wing. We have doubled our capacity for drying fruit in the last four to five years,” Curry added.
Westfalia has also opened a new Wellness Centre clinic on its main avocado plantation, Westfalia Farm, which formally opened two weeks ago and is now fully operational.
