With Australia's mango season hitting its peak, it is expected to be another big year for growers, with predictions of the second biggest crop the industry has produced.
The Australian Mango Industry Association says while it is not expected to get to the record volumes of last year, more than 10 million trays are still expected to be harvested. The forecasts of a large crop come despite weather events across the Top End and North Queensland.
"It has taken the edge off it," CEO Robert Gray said. "There was an earlier start to the wet in the Northern Territory, which caused some issues in getting some of the last of the Katherine crop off, and the Darwin crop. We have had the extreme heat in North Queensland and some rain that brought forward some of the harvesting in North Queensland and resulted in some fruit becoming ripe on the trees and unable to be marketed. But overall, growers have managed those ups and downs."
Photo: Keitt and pruned KP trees in Mareeba (source: AMIA)
In fact, Mr Gray says this year's quality has been exceptional, with flavour tests returning excellent results across all the varieties in all growing regions.
"We have certainly seen our flavour measurement through our objective reporting scoring very consistently high fruit all season," he said. "The product has been eating beautifully. We think that is a combination of focus by the growers, but also those hot dry days and cool nights certainly helped accumulate sugars."
It has also been another big year for exports, with a similar proportion of the crop set to be sent overseas, as last year. Although numbers are not confirmed yet, Mr Gray is expecting an increase in the amount of fruit being shipped to China direct, as well as possibly increased volumes into the United States.
"The market in Australia has been up and down, with surges in the heat that has brought fruit on and that export market has also ridden that rollercoaster a bit as well," he said. "All in all, it has been a strong export year, but there still more work to be done, especially in expanding our direct trade into China and improving the access protocols."
Photo: Quality testing ensures delicious fruit for the consumer (source: AMIA)
It is the second year after Cyclone Debbie tore through the Bowen region, in North Queensland, and growers are again producing strong numbers of fruit.
"You could pretty well say all of the orchards have come through the cyclone pretty well after the immediate damage," Mr Gray said. "After a lot of pruning and canopy management, the growers there have got their orchards back on track."
There has been a rise in the profiles of heavily marketed varieties such as Honey Gold and Calypso, and along with the R2E2, Mr Gray says these three are where the growth has been over the past few years, but it has also strengthened traditional varieties.
"What is interesting is that they are increasing their demand in alignment with increase in their supply," he said. "They are certainly increasing their share of the total crop, but that is very much supply driven as well. Any new varieties like those three, particularly Honey Gold and Calypso where it is a very controlled supply chain is meaning all the players in the marketplace have to lift their game. So, it's calling on all mango growers to lift their professionalism, lift their quality—and the Kensington Pride (KP) growers have responded strongly with their focus on flavour. That is certainly an area where the KPs have that point of difference in the marketplace and as an industry grower of KPs that are focused on making sure their KPs deliver on a great KP flavour has helped differentiate their line in the marketplace."
The Australian mango season is expected to run into March, but there is likely to be less late season volumes than last year because of the earlier start due to the warmer weather. The Bundaberg region is well into its harvest, which is a few weeks earlier than normal, according to the AMIA. That follows some storm events before Christmas in South East Queensland, but Mr Gray says there is still good numbers of Honey Gold, Keitt and Calypso varieties which hit the market from that area.
For more information
Robert Gray
Australian Mango Industry Association
Phone: +61 7 3278 3755
ceo@mangoes.net.au
www.mangoes.net.au