Mango industry says prices will rise back to $2 to $2.50

The mango glut will not last forever with the industry warning the cheap prices of $1.50 will soon rise back to the preferred $2 to $2.50, helping growers as they push through this year’s lower production rate.

THE mango glut will not last forever with the industry warning the cheap prices of $1.50 each will soon rise back to the preferred $2 to $2.50, helping growers as they push through this year’s lower production rate.

The Australian Mango Industry Association (AMIA) says the low prices seen in supermarkets in recent weeks was due to a flush of supply from Darwin, however the popular fruit will not remain at that price.

Noonamah farmer Steve Jenkins’ massive 1.5kg mango monster

“If it’s $1.50 every week, that’s going to be a problem for growers,” AMIA chief executive Robert Gray said.

“But I don’t think they will stay at that $1.50, it’s starting to change already.

“We may see three for $5 and it will fluctuate but we’re certainly not expecting it to stay at that.”

Mr Gray said last year nationally 11 million trays were put to the market for the season, however this year the forecast was for 10 million trays or slightly less due to cool weather that stayed through till spring.

“There’s certainly not going to be a shortage but there won’t be a tidal wave of mangoes,” he said.

“We did think we were going to have a record year and now it’s looking like we’ll be about 10 per cent less.

“At the moment, for this season we’re producing 500,000 to 600,000 trays.”

Mr Gray said consumers should expect to pay around $2 to $2.50 for a mango as this was a preferable price where growers were not as impacted.