The Cinco de Mayo show goes on, despite supply complexities
A single mango goes a long way: in recipes and in creating #MangoJoy for consumers. Mangoes don’t have to be dirt cheap or in heaping abundance for a consumer to feel the sweet tropical satisfaction and joy that comes from eating and using mangoes.
As I previously reported, Easter is the threshold for volume turnaround. For the most part, that is still the case. The main problem is that the Easter packhouse closings intersect with the lowest volume weeks of fruit. This means the low volume weeks we have experienced are bashing up against less fruit and orchard/packhouse shutdowns for a few days. This means next week (the week after Easter) will be the most difficult week for fruit volume fulfillments industry wide.
Oaxaca and Chiapas are a 3-5 day drive to Nogales & McAllen, and fruit has to be picked, packed, and shipped before anyone can get their hands on it. The math is simple and with an already empty(ish) pipeline and unprecedented demand, we anticipate that it will take a few weeks to fill up. This puts us directly into the Cinco De Mayo push, which means we do not expect a “flush” of product until after Cinco De Mayo. But I say that with caution as the timing puts is directly in the beginning of the transition from the southern regions into the Northern ones with the onset of Nayarit Ataulfos.
Transitions can be tricky. We experienced this last season, so we continue to monitor the ongoing complexities coupled with the extraordinary rise in demand.
As we push past Easter, things will be okay for our committed season-long program business, but there is currently still confusion coming from the orchards. We expect that to continue, as erratic climate and demand patterns make predictions difficult.
It takes a lot of work to move through these times, and we do so with greater ease due to the long-term loyal partnerships we have built and the new ones we continue building.
Stay positive and remember it’s a long season. (Maybe a margarita?)
The supply is the supply; that part we can’t really change. Nature has its way of ignoring demands placed on it. But as we approach Cinco De Mayo, we still have an opportunity and obligation, I’d argue, to include mangoes in Cinco de Mayo promotions, and the promotion that we conjured up several years back purposely fits into all scenarios of supply: low and high. It is often the case that supply has hiccups in organic mangoes during April and the lead up to the 5th of May. This is partly why this promotion, in addition to being exciting, engaging, and enticing on all things organic mango, the campaign #CelebrateMexico #CelebrateMangoes aims to educate on the beauty and culture of Mexico. Consumers celebrate Mexico and encourage the celebration of all things Mexican, including its rich agricultural products and our fellow organic farmers, their peppers, tomatoes, onions, berries, and so on.
Brush up on your Cinco De Mayo Merchandising with advice from Brian Dey of Four Seasons There are a lot of promotable Mexican organic produce items out there, mangoes are just one of them.
#CelebrateMexico #CelebrateMangoes
No Comments