CONSUMERS can look forward to plenty of mangoes on shelves this festive season, despite labour shortages and weather impacting production for some northern growers.
According to Australian Mangoes, over eight million trays are expected to hit Aussie shops this season, with 1.3 million of them coming out of the Bowen/Burdekin district.
Growers reported mixed yields from some of the more reliable varieties like Kensington Prides this year, but thankfully others shone through to ensure a solid supply over the key summer period.
Ayr mango producer Brad Bowen has been growing mangoes alongside his wife, Loretta, for the last 10 years, with 18,000 mango trees in production across three separate farms featuring R2E2s, Kensington Prides, and trials of 1243, 1201 and 4069.
Mr Bowen said they were one of the first producers to team up with DAF to do the trial on the new mango varieties.
"They just asked for expressions of interest from mango growers to trial these new varieties and we did," he said.
"What they're trying to breed is better mangoes with a longer shelf life, better to look at visually, better to eat and better yielding. They're just trying to improve on what we've already got."
With harvest wrapped up, Mr Bowen said it was a challenging year but they still achieved a positive result.
"We've had issues with labour shortages through COVID, which has affected a lot of farmers, and also weather has made things a little bit harder; rain coming when we don't want it," he said.
"Yield was mixed as well, we had a fantastic crop of R2E2s and they looked really good, and then our Kensington Pride mangoes barely yielded at all."
Mr Bowen said a lot of Queensland and Northern Territory producers experienced the same thing.
"There was a real short supply of Kensington Prides this year, no one knows why, they just decided to have a year off and go on a bit of a gap year," he said.
"The other varieties have more than filled the gap."
Mr Bowen said prices had dropped slightly this year, because export markets were back, which was why he encouraged local consumers to continue to eat mangoes.
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Originally from a grazing background, Mr Bowen's family farmed cattle and timber in Gloucester, NSW, before moving north when he was a teenager.
"So my family logged trees, and now I'm the opposite; I plant them," he said.
After meeting Loretta and working for her family on their mango farm, the couple decided to branch out and purchase their own.
"In 2015 we got our home block, which was an old cane farm that we converted to a mango orchard, and just slowly progressed from there," he said.
Now the Bowen family own an aggregate of 200 hectares comprised of three mango farms, and one sugar cane farm, where they also grow a variety of bean crops, seedless watermelons and pumpkins in rotation.
"I think it's important, particularly starting out in ag, if you can spread your risk as much as you can, particularly with horticulture, because horticulture can be volatile, and we've found by diversifying we can do that," he said.
Going forward, Mr Bowen said they're always open to trying different things, but in the mean time their focus will be on their mangos and getting them right.
"We really aim to produce good quality fruit with a long shelf life," he said.
"I love being able to grow fruit that I just love the taste of, so for me to be able to grow a piece of fruit that tastes that good is the ultimate reward."
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