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Despite early storms and a shortage of pickers, there is some good news on the horizon for Ord mango growers. Department of Agriculture and mango growers conducted a pilot trial in Europe and the United Kingdom (UK). The trial increased mango sales by 1200 percent in a three week period. Department industry development officer Peter Johnson and the mango project group, will now travel to France, the Netherlands and the UK next month to build on this success and investigate new market opportunities for the Kensington Pride mango variety. Mr Johnson’s work will include conducting fruit colouring trials in the Netherlands, looking for new market opportunities in France and running several in-store promotions in the UK. He said the mango industry was one of the fastest expanding horticultural industries in WA and a rapid increase in production was expected over the next five years. “This trip is aimed at full commercialisation, with three containers of mangoes being sent over in consecutive weeks,” Mr Johnson said. |
“In 2003 I travelled to the region to assist in the establishment of a staging partner for the European Community, which receives, colours, distributes and markets the fruit. “Post shipment handling of the Kensington Pride mango was also undertaken in the Netherlands and, with the assistance of the WA Trade office, an in-store demonstration was held to test new market opportunities.” Mr Johnson said previously mangoes had only been exported via air freight, which resulted in premium prices in many markets, but the high costs associated with this were restricting market development. “Previous attempts to export mangoes via sea freight had returned mixed results,” he said. ”The 2003 pilot project looked at improving post shipment handling facilities and marketing the fruit, which resulted in a more successful return,” he said. “As the fruit is transported at low temperatures under controlled atmospheric conditions, it requires some conditioning on arrival. “This is known as the ‘colouring’ process, where the fruit is brought up to 18 degrees celsius and combined with low levels of ripening gas to bring out the yellow colour in the skin.” |
While visiting the UK in December, Mr Johnson will assist the project team to set-up 15 in-store promotions with Sainsburys and Waitrose supermarkets. Mr Johnson said the 2003 in-store promotions had resulted in a 1200 per cent increase in sales over just a three week period. “In-store promotion is important because the Kensington Pride is very different to the mangoes the UK consumer is familiar with,” he said. “The promotion events are aimed at creating a new fruit category for a premium mango that is ‘ripe for tonight’.” Mr Johnson said if this season’s shipments were successful, it was expected that UK supermarkets would want to run the Kensington Pride mangoes across all of their stores next season. “This would create a large export market for Kununurra and Katherine growers and, as the market developed further, opportunities for other growers in the region,” he said. The Kensington Pride mango used in the shipments will come from a combination of growers from Ord River and Katherine in the NT.
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