Reports coming out of the Melbourne and Sydney markets suggest a mystery disorder, which affects mangoes, is on the rise.
Known as resin canal, the defect appears in mangoes as they ripen, and although it doesn’t affect the eating quality, it causes a number of aesthetic problems for the fruit (see picture).
Sydney based wholesaler, Carlo Ceravolo, says resin canal is appearing on more fruit and consumers are shying away from the product.
“Over the last three or four years we’ve watched it get worse and certainly this year it’s clearly visible,” he said.
“This resin canal is such an insipid-looking disease and customers just won’t go near it, even though the eating quality is not affected.”
Tim Elliott, who runs a mango packing shed near Darwin, says resin canal is the biggest threat to Australia’s mango industry.
He’s now using his own money to fund research and believes industry and the Northern Territory Government should be doing more.
“We need people on the ground. We need a number of investigations into the number of possibilities,” he said.
“Queensland has highlighted a number of causes, but it all takes time.
“The season is very short. We need to get people on the ground now and we need to have a look at it, because this is costing livelihoods everywhere.
“Early reports from the Melbourne markets are showing 18 per cent of the growers are being affected (by resin canal), with up to 50 per cent of their fruit per tray being affected,” he said.
Director of plant industries for the NT Department of Primary Industry, Bob Williams, admits there hasn’t been a lot of research done on resin canal.
“We don’t know what causes it and there hasn’t been a lot of research into it,” he said.
“For some growers maybe there’s not enough (research) being done, but when you put it in the bigger picture and the priorities the industry is setting, it (resin canal) is down the list,
“But in a number of our projects where fruit quality is the outcome of our research, we will be looking at all the things like immature ripening and resin canal.
“I very much doubt this is a chemical issue… we know it happens from Bundaberg (QLD) all the way north sporadically,
“What we need to do, is find out where it’s occurring consistently, we’ve got some leads and we’ll be looking at those.”
Source: ABC Australia