On the back of another successful campaign with its exclusive Honey Gold mangoes, Queensland-based Piñata Farms has announced an additional 50,000 trees of the variety will be planted over the next 12 months.
The move will see Piñata boost production at its orchards in Katherine and Humpty Doo in the Northern Territory, while contracted growers in Queensland’s Mareeba and Bowen regions will also expand their plantings.
Piñata’s managing director, Gavin Scurr, said this would result in a projected 30 per cent increase in yield by 2025, while also extending the sales window for the variety.
'Our mangoes will never be the first to hit the shelves in mango season, but by planting in the Darwin region for the first time, we'll be able to harvest a month earlier,' Scurr said.
'Future growth for Honey Gold mangoes lies in the tropics. It's a tropical fruit best suited to tropical conditions. Although we can produce them in sub-tropical regions, it's more challenging.'
Honey Gold mangoes were produced by Piñata and 35 third-party growers across the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia over the 2015/16 Australian summer.
While the overall volume of fruit sent to market during 2015/16 was slightly down on the previous record season, Scurr said Honey Gold retained an eight to nine per cent share of the Australian mango market, with demand continuing to grow.
“As we projected, it was a solid season with a good volume of fruit produced in the main growing regions of the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland,' he said.
“The Honey Gold brand now has an established presence in the Australian mango category. Brand recognition continues to build due to a consistency of flavour and volume. The future for Honey Gold mangoes is pretty exciting.”
Scurr said about three per cent of the 2015-2016 crop was exported, including shipments to the US for the first time since a protocol allowing the importation of Australian mangoes was introduced.
