The mango season is 2/3 of the way through at Rich Red Fruit's orchards in Darwin and according to Matthew Palise, Managing Director of the company, it is looking like a record year. "We started four weeks weeks early, which meant that customers could enjoy the mangoes from August onwards," explained Matt. "It has been a longer season which has been good for the growers and given us a chance to get the fruit off in a mature state."
Rich Red Fruits were packing up to 200 bins per day into three or four truck trailers, to be sent to southern markets.
Due to the early start the season will finish up a week or two earlier, and Matt reckons they will close at around 600,000 trays for the season.
Mr KP is the brand for for Rich Red Fruit's Kensington Pride mangoes, which mostly go to the Australian market, "We have exported before but we are not under pressure to export as there is good demand on the domestic market, and the prices this year have been very consistent due to the longer season," according to Matt.
This season more Australian companies are are exporting mangoes to the US market which opened last year, but Matt says that they are probably too early for that market and would hit the tail end of the Mexican mango season.
After the mango harvest will come the stonefruit and Matt said that the orchards are in full blossom at the moment, after stonefruit will come apples.
"We should start the stonefruit harvest in late October and run through to December then the apples will start in the new year. Most of the stonefruit growing regions have had some weather issues with hail and rain so will most likely be a lighter season, but this will hopefully keep prices up," explains Matt.
The peaches, nectarine and cherries are exported to Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and some to Dubai under the Rich Red Fruit and Napoleone brands.
"We are quite new to export," says Matt "We have seen an expansion across all our businesses between the Napoleone family and Red Rich Fruits so we have been focusing mainly on our domestic production and supply until now. Last year was our first year into export and we did 50 consignments, this year we are looking to grow this and increase it steadily over time."
For more information:
Erin HartRed Rich Fruits
Tel: +61 2 9675 7395
Email: erin@redrichfruitsnsw.com.au
redrichfruits.com.au