A Boeing 777 will leave Darwin this night with more than 50 tonnes of mangoes on board, in what Cathay Pacific Cargo states is the start of a brand-new “Mango Express” into Asia.
Key points:
- The Northern Territory produces majority of Australia’s mangoes
- Cathay Pacific has actually released a weekly flight out of Darwin to export mangoes to Asia
- A brand-new vapour heat treatment center in Darwin permits mangoes to be exported to markets like South Korea
With the mango season peaking in the Northern Territory, the airliner has actually devoted to running a weekly service out of Darwin for 5 weeks.
Cathay Pacific’s local head of freight, Nigel Chynoweth, stated the very first flight would see NT mangoes provided to Hong Kong, South Korea, and Dubai.
” Darwin now has a cutting edge [export] center with a vapour heat treatment (VHT) plant on website for mangoes, which is important to its success,” he stated.
” For us to be able to boost mangoes [to Hong Kong] with next-day connection to a variety of locations is best.”
Mr Chynoweth stated Cathay Pacific had actually invested the previous couple of years establishing the “Cherry Express” out of Hobart and hoped mango exports from Darwin would be likewise effective.
It is approximated 285 tonnes of NT mangoes will be exported over the next 5 weeks while the service is running.
From Darwin to the world
Over the past 18 months, the Northern Territory has actually exported little volumes of mangoes, pumpkins, and rockmelons into Asia.
But according to Robert Hall from Pak Fresh Handling and Seaway Logistics, among the huge advancements this year was the business’s brand-new vapour heat treatment plant for mangoes.
” The treatment procedure enables us to export to nations like Korea and Japan,” he stated.
” It implies the fruit satisfies worldwide procedures and will not be bring any illness or fruit flies.
” We’ve now treated our very first chamber-load of NT mangoes, which was truly amazing.
” It’s been a long period of time coming since we’ve been dealing with this job for 5 years.”
Exporting NT mangoes traditionally included trucking fruit countless kilometres to Brisbane or Sydney to be placed on an aircraft and flown back over Darwin.
Mr Hall stated it was interesting to see NT produce going direct from Darwin to clients worldwide.
” There are 6 significantly big markets that have not been readily available ex-Darwin prior to, which we’ll be doing this year with our airfreight partners,” he stated.
” The next 5 or 6 weeks will be extremely hectic and NT produce will even be going through to Canada.”
The most current crop projection has the NT on track to produce 4.6 million trays (32,000 tonnes) of mangoes this season.
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