2020/21 Australian mango season officially gets under way

IT has to be the worst-kept secret, but after months of anticipation, the Australian Mango Industry Association has declared the 2020/21 mango season open.

• Vanuatu mango pickers get out of quarantine and straight down to saving Top End crops
• Seasonal workers arrive from Vanuatu to help fill Top End fruit picking jobs
• Critical mango workers set to arrive in the NT from Vanuatu within days after significant hurdles cleared
• Overseas workforce set to come to Northern Territory mango farmers’ rescue

IT has to be the worst-kept secret, but after months of anticipation, the Australian Mango Industry Association has declared the 2020/21 mango season open.

The Top End’s favourite fruit is now in full supply, with national dispatch levels increasing from 100,000 trays a week in early September to levels that will exceed 400,000 trays in early October, when peak season starts.

It’s expected Aussies will indulge in nearly 200 million mangoes across the warmer seasons, with the tropical fruit reigning supreme in supermarkets through to March 2021.

Annie Kintor, Charline Lolting and Bill Frazer Alling are among the Vanuatu fruit pickers working on Arnhem Mangoes’ mango farm. Picture: Che Chorley

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And it’s fruit pickers like Yanmck Naeun who ensure the crop gets to market.

He has been coming to Darwin for the past four years to work at Barry Albrecht’s farm, Arnhem Mangoes, at Lambells Lagoon.

Mr Naeun is one of 160 fruit pickers flown in from Vanuatu on a rescue mission to save the Top End’s fruit farmers from ruin.

Vanuatu fruit picker Yanmck Nauen. Picture: Gary Shipway

Since finishing his 14 days quarantine, Mr Naeun has been hard at work in the heat stripping mangoes from their trees. And he wouldn’t have it any other way, having swapped life as a deckhand after a chance encounter with Mr Albrecht in Vanuatu.

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“I asked Barry if he needed any workers and he said he would get back to me,” he said.

“Not long after that, I was in Darwin picking mangoes.

“And with me now are many of my friends, who love coming to Darwin to fruit pick … We all love this place.”