One of Australia’s biggest mango growers is ramping up the commercial rollout of three long-awaited mango varieties.
Manbulloo Limited has just planted about 4,000 of the Yess! AhHa! and Now! varieties at its Ballongilly farm near Katherine, 300 kilometres south-east of Darwin.
The three varieties are the result of 25 years of development from the National Mango Breeding Program and in 2022, Manbulloo was awarded their commercial rights.
In Queensland a total of 20,000 trees of the new varieties were planted among 26 growers including Manbulloo.
Another 26 farmers across Australia will also plant the Yess! AhHa! and Now! varieties, under Manbulloo’s commercial rollout.
New mangoes planted
Manbulloo managing director Marie Piccone said most of the new varieties were being planted in Queensland.
“We’re hoping for some more expansion in New South Wales, West Australia and Northern Territory,” she said.
“We have indications now, based on trees that have been planted in the last 12 months and trees that are on order, being produced in nurseries right now, that the volume will continue to increase.
“We’ll put a cap on that once we’ve got enough volume to supply profitable customers.”
Ms Piccone said Manbulloo would focus on selling the new mangoes to the domestic market, but had an eye on exports in the future.
“There’s potential in every market in the world because these varieties taste very good and are flavoursome,” she said.
“But in terms of which markets we will hone in on, that will be dependent on profitability and potential in the domestic market.”
Planting at Ballongilly
The 4,000 new mangoes planted at Ballongilly took six people just five days to put in the ground.
Farm manager Trevor Nelson said one of the big challenges was keeping wallabies away from the young trees.
“We’ve put up a big fence around them to try and prevent any wallabies from getting in,” Mr Nelson said.
“So far it’s working. Obviously wallabies can jump over but we have a big skirt on there and all we can do is try our best.”
Most of the new mangoes planted at Ballongilly were the Yess! variety.
“They were selected because they have great flavour, consistent flowering and quite a heavy yield,” Ms Piccone said.
“In terms of the Northern Territory, the Yess! [fruits] earlier than the other places.”
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