Red Rich says well-timed rainfall and an organised packhouse turned the season around following a slow start
Severe hot and dry conditions ahead of this year’s mango harvest in Australia’s Northern Territory had the potential to stop Darwin’s crop in its tracks. However, rainfall in late September and an organised packing operation meant Red Rich Fruits saw success come end of season.
“When I arrived in Darwin this year in early September, we had extremely hot and dry conditions with a severe lack of humidity,” says Red Rich national farming manager, Tim Teague. “I had a real concern initially, that the fruit wasn’t moving, it wasn’t sizing up, and that it was going to mature at a very small size on the tree. The only thing to that was going to prevent that was rain.”
Thankfully, this was in the cards and the region received about 70ml of rain on 27 September.
“That changed everything,” Teague says. “It put some moisture in the ground, put some humidity in the air, and the fruit started to size up.”
The challenges didn’t stop there, however, and Darwin growers prepped for a glut as the compounding weather conditions meant all the region’s fruit came online at the same time.
“We had done minimal volumes, packing wise, in September, and then as of 1 October, the volumes went crazy,” Teague says.
Over the course of the harvest, Red Rich processed approximately 4,000 tonnes of mangoes, including Kensington pride and R2E2, through its Berry Springs packing shed – the majority of that in October alone.
Teague says visits from retailers in late September meant everyone along the chain was prepared to move the fruit through quickly, but it required dedicated coordination.
“That visit showed them there was fruit on the tree, the quality was good, and that we were going to have to hit the ground running with promotions and sales,” he says. “It was going to go from zero to 100 very, very quickly.”
An organised pack line was also crucial to working through the volumes.
“If you can pack 300 bins a day, but you can only get two trucks a day, well, those two things don’t match up,” Teague explains. “I’d like to think that Berry Springs has got significant experience in that area, that’s one area where we excel. Whatever we were packing that day left that day.”
Red Rich sent the majority of its production to Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane to be ripened and sold through major retailers and independent grocers.
“These regions have always provided robust demand for our mangoes, so we continued to target them this season,” says Red Rich marketing manager, Erin Hart.
As Red Rich made it through early October, there were concerns Darwin was set to overlap with a potentially early Katherine harvest.
“If you’ve got two regions that overlap, then you’re going to crash the price. So that’s in no one’s best interest,” Teague says. “Thankfully that didn’t really eventuate, most of us got most of our fruit out of the way in time. We finished the first week of November, and Katherine started that same week.”
Hart says despite these challenges, the Australian mango sector remains strong.
“As farmers, we are always at the mercy of the weather,” she says. “But the resilience of growers and advancements in varietal development, growing, handling, and packing techniques continue to drive quality improvements across the industry.” n
