SOURCE: Daniel Fitzgerald and Matt Brann, ABC Rural
Top End mango growers are considering whether it’s worthwhile to send their early-season green mangoes to southern markets, with Vietnamese imports more than doubling this year.
Every year, farmers in the Darwin rural area spend a lot of money and effort to get their trees to fruit early in order to get their green mangoes to market around April or May and capitalise on higher prices.
But this year the number of Vietnamese mangoes in Australian markets has more than doubled, driving down the price for that early fruit.
According to the Department of Agriculture, 124 tonnes of Vietnamese mangoes were imported in the first six months of 2020, up from 51 tonnes during the same period last year.
Berry Springs mango grower Wayne Quach said the competition from Vietnamese mangoes had a big impact on his and other farmers’ bottom line.
“The price dropped around 40 per cent,” he said.
“Normally we get around about $80 per tray, but this year we got around $50.”
Mr Quach said, given the high risk and high outputs needed to grow early mangoes, the increased competition had caused some farmers to reconsider their plans.
“I have spoken with other [farmers] who said: ‘We might not grow any April or May mangoes, because if the market hits us with the [Vietnamese] competition we might as well go later and take less risk’,” he said.
Mr Quach said most of the imported green mangoes were being sold to restaurants, not supermarkets, where they were used in South-East Asian cuisine.
ABC Rural has been told the current price for green mangoes has improved greatly as imports have slowed down, with 10-kilogram boxes of Nam Doc Mais from Darwin selling recently in Sydney markets for up to $140 each.
Early season KPs head to market
Meanwhile, a number of farms in Darwin’s rural area have started picking the season’s first ripe Kensington Prides.
Berry Creek Packing Company’s Tim Elliott said his company had been busy packing mangoes this morning destined for the Sydney Markets.
He said volumes in July were quite small, and most consumers would still have to wait a few more weeks before they noticed any mangoes in their supermarkets.
“I wouldn’t expect [big numbers] until September, and even in early September the prices will be fairly high,” he said.
“But you can’t do a lot these days, you can’t go overseas, you can’t go on holidays, so you might as well buy a mango.”
Last year, the NT produced around 5.5 million trays of mangoes.
Mr Elliott said it was too early to tell how many trays would be produced this year, with the peak of the NT’s harvest not due until October.
“I think it might be a bit lighter early on, but I think it could finish off really strong, but we’re yet to see what [fruit] will hold for that late October period,” he said.
“Obviously the availability of a workforce is another tricky thing for industry, although I’ve given up worrying about that. What will be, will be.”
There were 4,500 trays of mangoes dispatched to markets from the NT last week.