The company is already the largest producer of Kensington Pride mangoes in Australia, and also grows R2E2 and Keitt varieties, with recent expansions helping to meet demand around the world.
“We now have about 650 hectares of mangoes between Queensland and the Northern Territory, and we’re just about to start supplying from our newer farm in the Atherton Tablelands,” Manbulloo Mangoes Managing Director Marie Piccone says.
She notes that Keitt mangoes, in particular, will help lengthen their supply season, as the variety tends to ripen later.
“Keitt mangoes ripen later than most, and we won’t start harvesting them til mid to late January,” she says.
“It means that now we can supply [our main domestic partner] Coles and export from late September till February.”
Manbulloo Mangoes was also one of the first growers in Australia to have mangoes shipped to the US this season, and Ms Piccone says the response has been very positive so far.“We sent three air pallets into the US – about 20 tonnes – and we also went over there to support our partners, Melissa, and make sure quality through the supply chain was good,” she says.
“They love the fruit so much, we just couldn’t fill all the orders this time. There’s certainly the demand, US consumers know Australian mangoes taste so good and the response was ‘this tastes sensational’.”
She says the positive response and great relationship with their US partner means they can hope to send even more next season.
“We haven’t had discussion with partners in US yet, but suffice to say with the orders they’ve got, we just think with the US the sky is the limit,” she says, adding that this will not effect any of their commitments to existing customers.
“One of the reasons we’ve been able to expand our growing area is due to demand, but we’re also really lucky to have great partners domestically and in our export markets in South Korea, Mainland China, Canada and now the US.”
She says they will have mangoes on the market until mid-February this season, and will start making decisions for the next season from April to May, when flowering has begun and there is a better sense of market demands.
For more information:
Marie Piccone
Manbulloo Mangoes
Tel: + 61 7 3860 6990
Email: mpiccone@manbulloo.com
www.manbulloo.com