Consumers can expect to pay a little more for a mango this season as the harvest in the industry’s largest growing area, Mareeba, gets underway next week.
With harvest in Northern Territory wrapping up and the Bowen and Burdekin in full swing and estimated to produce 1.2 million trays, mangoes are gracing the shelves in retail outlets all over.
Mareeba’s season will peak from the end of December through to the end of January, but harvest will continue until mid March.
Australian Mango Industry Association chief executive officer Robert Gray said the Mareeba-Dimbulah crop estimate was 1.9 million trays out of a total national crop of 7.5 million trays.
“The Kensington Pride crop is down but the combination of R2E2, Honey Gold and Calypso has made up for a lot of that,” Mr Gray said.
“The whole of Australia is looking like it will be down 10 per cent on last year.”
An average flowering is being blamed for the smaller than normal crop. Cool winter conditions trigger flowering.
“We didn’t have normal cool weather early on in winter,” Mr Gray said. “It came late so the trees predominantly flowered late.
“We have had an average flowering and of the trees that did flower it wasn’t ideal fruit setting conditions which hasn’t converted to fruit as well as it could have done.”
Despite the smaller volumes, Mr Gray said quality was looking very good.
“The fruit from the Northern Territory has been very high maturing and eating exceptionally well across all varieties,” Mr Gray said.
“While the crop is down on last year quality is very good, there is still good availability of all varieties and consumers won’t go without a mango
“They may need to pay a little bit more.
“Most good fruit at retail is selling around $2.50 a piece, some are $3 and we would expect that to be maintained throughout the season.
“The good news about that is that it gives a good return back to growers as long as they have a reasonable crop, and most people do.”
Northern Territory growers kicked off their season by exporting to America, building on the historic first shipment of fruit that was sent last year to the US, and sourced from Mareeba.
Mr Gray said Mareeba fruit would be exported to America again this season
“When Mareeba starts they will be starting on back of product in the market that has been performing well,” Mr Gray said.
“We expect the total number of shipments to be double what went last year to the US, although it wasn’t a big number last year and we are in the market for twice as long this year with the NT crop.
“Other export markets in New Zealand, South East Asia and the Middle East have all been receiving good supplies of fruit out of the Northern Territory and Bowen so far and we would expect that to continue as well.”
