Washington, DC – The Washington DC-based Jamaica Direct Distributing Company joined forces with Miami-based US importer Season Farm Fresh, Inc. and their Jamaican export partners to bring mangoes from Jamaica to the United States — specifically, over 4,500 pounds of St. Julian (Julie) and East Indian mangoes targeted for the New York market.
The tasty fruit will be sold to mango lovers in the Jamaican and Caribbean communities. This will happen in Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens in New York on Saturday, June 13, 2020.
Demand for Jamaican Mangoes
Byron Wills, the Managing Director of Jamaica Direct Distributing Company, said they decided to import mangoes. This choice aims to help Jamaican farmers. These farmers are facing a big drop in sales because of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also a demand for Jamaican mangoes in the US.
He also said that the mangoes were supposed to be shipped to the US at the start of the mango season in April. However, the borders closed and exports were temporarily stopped. This caused a delay in the shipment. As a result, mango farmers in Jamaica had to rely only on local markets to sell their produce.
He said that as commercial airlines were not back in flight as yet, Season Fresh Farm make the decision to charter a cargo plane to transport the mangoes to the USA.
The precious cargo left Jamaica on Monday, June 8, 2020, with the Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Audley Shaw on hand to witness the departure of the mangoes to the USA.
Mr. Wills noted that by partnering with American importer Nicholas Bernal, they made a big impact. Bernal owns Season Farm Fresh Inc. Together, both companies worked with the Jamaican Government and local farmers. Their goal was to bring mangoes to the North Eastern United States. This included the New York City and Metropolitan Washington DC markets in 2019.
Varieties of Mangoes
He added that the partnership imported over 20,000 pounds of the Julie and East Indian varieties of mangoes in 2019 that were sold to a select group of Caribbean-affiliated stores in the New York and metropolitan Washington DC areas, and also in the South Florida territory.
Mr. Wills said that Jamaica Direct Distributing Company is committed to supplying produce to the US markets it serves and hopes that the delivery of these mangoes would “bring some delight and a sense of home” in their difficult times to the Jamaican communities in the New York City region.
