n mango season will start in earnest in mid-late September and growers will be hoping for a better season than the 2013/14 one. The crop in the Northern Territory was down by as much as 50% due to poor flower induction caused by warm winter temperatures.Darwin in the Northern Territory will be the first to harvest with the Kensington Pride variety. Marie Piccone from Manbulloo, the largest producer of KP mangoes in Australia and the single largest exporter of Australian mangoes, said they will start to harvest in Katherine, Northern Territory either in the last week of September or first week of October. In Queensland, harvesting will commence at Manbulloo’s farm in early-mid November.
"At the moment the trees are flowering so it hard to predict precisely when the season will start. Weather conditions at Katherine have been good for flower induction," explains Marie. Due to the dry weather from fruit set to harvest, pesticides are often not required. The trees are constantly irrigated from an underground aquifer and nutrition is applied through the irrigation system based on soil and leaf analysis results.
Manbulloo grows the Kensington Pride and R2E2 varieties on the Katherine farm and two farms in Queensland and markets mangoes directly to retail customers in Australia and export customers in China, South Korea, Canada, UAE, Russia and Singapore.
Manbulloo exports through its own export company, Mango Road, and is the only Australian company exporting mangoes directly to mainland China and South Korea. Mangoes for these 2 markets must be heat treated for control of fruit fly and Manbulloo owns one of only two plants in Australia. Consequently Mango Road is the only licensed and registered Australian company exporting mangoes to Korea and directly into mainland China.
