About eight years ago, Eric Nagelberg of family-owned Panorama Produce Sales Inc. in Mamaroneck, NY, surveyed the company’s list of products and thought mangos would make a good addition.

“We saw it as a crop that had a lot of room to grow,” he said. “We knew that mangos were the most popular fruit in the world, though they hadn’t gained that same popularity in the United States. But everyone said it had a lot of growth potential, so we decided to add a mango program. I started the program and received good support from the rest of the family.”

Florida-based Continental Fresh is beginning its heaviest time of the year for mango supplies, and Managing Partner Albert Perez expects 2011 to be a carbon copy of 2010.

As the Mexican mango deal was winding down in early September, Ronnie Cohen of the Vision Import Group in River Edge, NJ, saw a strong mango market ahead for the fall deal, which features South America fruit.

“Brazil was supposed to be early, but that didn’t really happen,” he said on the first day of September. “Over the next couple of months, I see good marketing opportunities with a decent transition between areas.”

In early September, the staff at Burlingame, CA-based Splendid Products LLC brought in their last load of mangos from the Los Mochis area of Northern Mexico and began directing their attention to their next big mango program, which will come from Ecuador in mid-October.

The firm is one of the largest mango shippers in the late Mexico deal and consequently its supplies of Brazil mangos are relatively light. “We’ll fill in with some Brazil mangos over the next few weeks,” said Larry Nienkerk, who is the company’s managing partner, “but our next big deal comes from Ecuador.”

Mangos are the most popular fruit in the world and have made big sales gains in the United States during recent years. The year-round availability of the crop from many different countries is an important factor in that growth, and the mango importers work hard to create a smooth transition from one production area to the next.

Mango sales veteran Isabel Freeland, vice president of San Diego-based Coast Tropical, believes that things are lining up very well for a very strong South America mango deal this year.

“Ecuador is a little bit late, which should help Brazil. And we are expecting Peru to be as much as three weeks late, which will help Ecuador,” she said. “Each of those counties will have a little larger window to market their fruit this year, which should help growers in all three countries.”