With the mango season peaking in the Northern Territory, Cathay Pacific Cargo has committed to running a weekly service out of Darwin for five weeks. According to Cathay Pacific's regional head of cargo, Nigel Chynoweth, the first flight would see NT mangoes delivered to Hong Kong, South Korea and Dubai.
"Darwin now has a state-of-the-art [export] facility with a vapor heat treatment (VHT) plant on site for mangoes, which is critical to its success," he said. "For us to be able to uplift mangoes [to Hong Kong] with next-day connection to a number of destinations is perfect."
Chynoweth said Cathay Pacific had spent the past few years developing the "Cherry Express" out of Hobart and hoped mango exports from Darwin would be similarly successful. It is estimated 285 tons of NT mangoes will be exported over the next five weeks while the service is running.
Source: abc.net.au