The Crespo Organic mango season has got underway from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, with 'excellent' fruit quality and expectations of a robust market.

Nissa Pierson, who heads up the organic mango program, told www.freshfruitportal.com this was also the first year fruit would be sold in North America under a direct brand.

"We’ve been doing organic for about four or five years, but this is the first year the company's created their direct brand to the U.S. and Canadian market, which is the Crespo Organic brand," she said.

"The market is looking very strong - there were some predictions of big heavy volumes coming on, which have been true, but I think it’s an exceptional quality season which has made pretty much 99% of the fruit really excellent out there on the market.

"So prices remain high and demand remains steady."

She added the elimination of any substandard quality fruit on the market had allowed for volumes to be absorbed easily.

While volumes are fairly consistent with previous years, Pierson said yields had improved by around 10-15% in Mexico's northern Sinaloa region - where the company owns farms and a packhouse.

After Sinaloa, Crespo Organic mangoes will shipped from regions running down the country to the southern state of Oaxaca, with the season expected to finish around late August or early September.

The branded fruit is shipped throughout the U.S. and Canada, and Pierson said demand for organic mangoes was growing at a good rate.

"Especially for the Sinaloa season which, for the Mexican mango season, is kind of where we see the floor on pricing," she said.

"It ends up being a really competitive opportunity for conventional retailers to dabble or add organic products, because the margins are still good. So we do have a lot of conventional type stores promoting organics in June and July."

The representative said she was now hoping to push the brand through more retailers and exclusive wholesaler regional distributors in the U.S. and Canada.

www.freshfruitportal.com