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Farm, Featured, News

Empaque Don Jorge Opens in Rosario

May 1, 2023

Boasting the most efficient and modern mango pack house around

Disclaimer: This is a boastful and prideful post about a packing house that I truly believe in. I’m one of a few globally well-traveled industry folks with an extremely diverse make up of commodities, markets, cultures and systems. I have seen a lot of packing houses and “sheds” in my travels and none like this one. Boasting this facility and the Crespo family is the natural outcome of my true beliefs.

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Empaque Don Jorge (El Original) located in the Crespo’s hometown of Rosario, Sinaloa is now open for the season. It opens, with immediate plans to expand capacity beyond its extraordinary current amplitude. 5 additional stainless steal hot water tanks, 2 additional packing lines and 1 additional washing line are just a few of the augmentations that will further expand Latin America’s largest hydrothermal mango packhouse’s prowess.

It’s opening couldn’t be more needed as we move deeper into this wild and crazy Mexican mango season! Read my latest CROP REPORT for more crop and season expectations/details. For this post, I boast!!

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Featured, News

Ataulfo Mango Time

April 13, 2023

Shortcutting the promotion of Mexico’s yellow slipper

This is an industry geared post.

Instead of focusing on the lack of the round fruit the orchards are currently yielding into an empty pipeline, a problem that will take a little more time to fix and stabilize; focus on the mango abundance that the orchards are currently giving ~ Ataulfo mangoes!  It’s a great time to either examine and improve your existing organic Ataulfo program or think about implementing one. We have time, quality product and the support you need.

The Crespo Ataulfo program is robust; carpe diem.

The buttery smooth Ataulfo flesh  makes them extremely versatile for cooking  and eating and they are easy to please consumers price wise with  sizing at 12/14/16/18. Not only do we take sizing and quality seriously but we have invested in the consistency of volume necessary to build sales and ongoing national programs. The Crespo Organic seasons starts in late January and moves through the middle to end of August, so its also long one- worthy of some attention, especially as Ataulfos take off as the fastest growing organic varietal among consumers. And especially now as the Tommy’s are scarce and California’s stone fruit late do to the crazy rains. Retailers looking for something promote worthy need to look no further than the Crespo Organic Ataulfo mango!

We have everything that you need for success including price. They go on sale starting next week through Cinco De Mayo 
Download our Interactive Cinco De Mayo #CelebrateMexico #Celebrate Mangoes guide.

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Culture, Featured, Kitchen, News, People

#CelebrateMexico #CelebrateMangoes

April 5, 2023

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. Continue Reading…

Featured, News, Secrets & Lies

Hold On Just a Bit……and Then Let Loose

March 28, 2023

Round fruit inflexible for as lower yields and high demand wreak havoc 

When I was a little girl in southern California I used to race my bother on this little honda 50 on my pony Cricket. We would race down this long ass trail next to a creek with all kinds of bends and bumps and even oak branches in our way slapping our faces. Cricket was a fast little pony but in the beginning I used to lose all the time until I learned that I had to hold Cricket’s reins back a little bit on some of the worst turns and bends and bumpy areas; after I learned that move we beat my brother Axel’s ass every time!

These next two weeks are like the bendy turns that Cricket and I learned to race through.

Organic round mango fruit volume will be incredibly inflexible the next 2 weeks followed by a big loosening. This is a tough position, but one that we will transcend and soon forget once normal #MuchosMangoes quantities resume before your tulips bloom.

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Culture, Featured, Kitchen, News, People

My Equipo’s Recipe for Success

March 22, 2023

 

Those that feast together grow together

Someone recently claimed that recipes have no place in buyer-focused produce marketing. That someone doesn’t know my history with buyers or recipes nor does that person connect the dots between farms and tables, like I do. That someone has probably never witnessed the excitement over the vibrant consumer mango recipes and educational cards boldy worn by the displays of #MuchosMangoes during Crespo Organic Summer Mango Mania, put there by people like Four Seasons Produce’s merchandiser extraordinaire Brian Dey. That someone has likely never tasted the tantalizing Crespo Organic Sinaloa Sauce recipe, the one that I created to pay homage to the Crespo family’s home state of Sinaloa and the habanero and mango connection. No doubt  that someone completely underestimates the power of a good recipe and of food in general.

Food is a connector. When we share food, we get deeper insights into one another. Food builds friendships and mends conflicts. It’s a life necessity and one of the few sensory experiences that we get to share with all other human beings on the planet. Food may just be the most powerful connector there is. It is nourishing and, to partake in it together, nourishes the group. As we bring food into our bodies with others, we become the same. That feeling of sameness relaxes us and creates more openness. Trust, cooperation and growth are born out of openness. A mango recipe shared, seen, cooked, shared again (with consumers) binds us all. I know the power of food and a good recipe.

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About Me

Under The Mango Tree is a sweet spot, where I, a long time mango industry crackerjack, share everything I know. A place to find mango centric, agricultural, food and culture knowledge and a few juicy industry secrets and lies.

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