Spanish Mango Guide

Growers

Many large-scale growers take on an exporting role, possessing their own harvesting, packaging even logistics facilities to maintain the quality standards required for export within the EU.

Other smaller-scale growers market their products through cooperatives and associations.

Small growers without membership to any cooperatives depend almost entirely on wholesale markets (domestic and within the EU)

Central Purchasing centers

Apart from the traditional value chain, Spain is one of the countries in the EU where purchasing centers of major retail chains are located, such as French Carrefour (Socomo), and German companies are also present, including the Metro group with their Valencia Trading Office, Rewe with the Eurogroup España and Edeka with their Fruchtkontor España.

These purchase centers support supply programs of European retail chains.

Supermarkets in Spain do not always work with supply programs. There are many suppliers they can choose from, and they sometimes prefer to work with quotations.

German established purchasing centers in Spain is one of the reasons why exports in Germany is competing with France as one of the biggest, but a channel that we cannot utilize.  

-The mango production in Spain is concentrated in the coastal strip of Andalusia, bordered by Malaga and Motril, the same location where many of the avocado plantations are also cultivated due to the Mediterranean climatic conditions.

-The area used for the cultivation of mangoes is limited by 2 significant factors: water availability and many of the plantations are directly competing for land use with the tourism sector, which also generates a huge source of profit.

For climate and water availability reasons, the best suitable regions for growing mangoes in Spain are:

- Balearic Islands

- South Coastal of Andalucia, especially in Malaga, Granada, and Almeria 

- Murcia 

- Canary Islands 

- Valencia

The commercial varieties in Spain are the following:

-Osteen is one of the earliest and the most produced in Spain.

-Keitt, late production.

-Kent, mid-season.

-Tommy Atkins, the earliest, since August.

-The short season fits perfectly well in the import supply schedule of mangoes for the EU. Supplying in the months where most other sources of mangoes are in decline. Earliest is the Osteen mango in August until November.

-During the harvest season, Osteen mangoes are so competitive that importers from Brazil, Mexico etc adjust their importing schedules to avoid direct competition with Spain and simply waits for the Spanish mango season to be over before resuming imports. As Spain increases their production, importers must bear longer and longer wait. But this is not always the case.

-In years of low Spanish mango production, Brazilian mangoes flood the EU market with low quality and low-priced mangoes, and Spanish exporters have no choice but to lower their pricing to compete in the market.

-Another drawback of betting on a single variety is that the harvest season for the entire production market is the same hence prices tend to fall when supplies are high or it can be challenging to meet some quotas for export.

Spanish mangoes' major import countries include France (40.7%), Germany (12%), the Netherlands (11.7%), Portugal (10,7%), Italy (4.8%), and the UK (3.4%).

The below table shows import value(EUR) and volume(Kg) for the year 2016~2020.

-MRL standards: default of 0.01/kg. Other EU countries have MRL standards lower than the standards set by the EU.

-Phytosanitary certificate for Fruit Flies: Mangoes are highly susceptible to fruit flies. Traces of infestation can lead to export bans.

-Quality Standards: Almost exclusively, class 1 mangoes are the only ones allowed. 

Logistics for Spanish mangoes are mainly managed by land freight as its main destination markets are within Europe.

The most common and fastest transportation method is the en route to France.

- En route to France, road shipment is the most common and fastest transportation method.

- Ripened from the tree, harvested, and delivered on the same day ensures freshness and maintains the quality of the fruit.

- The maximum gross weight of vehicles (lorry) carrying goods to France must not exceed 40 tons. This amount can be exceeded with special permits.

- COVID-19 has adversely affected land shipments as many of the borders were closed or re-routed. Currently, border entry will require the presentation of any covid-19 related certificates. 

Phytosanitary certificate for Fruit Flies; Mangoes are highly susceptible to fruit flies. Traces of infestation can lead to export bans. 

Global GAP Certification; Global GAP is the most basic certification required by many channels. 

Certificate of Origin; Needed to prove the productive origin of each exporting batch. This document is mandatory to access tariff benefits given by a Free Trade Agreement. 

-From the onset of export back in 2010 the production of Spanish mangoes has seen a dramatic growth.

-The short season fits perfectly well in the import supply schedule of mangoes for the EU. supplying in the months where most other sources of mangoes are in decline.

-However, this limited period of availability has a major disadvantage of limited sales window, not to mention the highly volatile production volume of mangoes.