Flight from Vanuatu with 160 fruit pickers flying into Darwin for mango season

A charter flight carrying desperately needed seasonal workers for this year’s mango harvest will touch down in Darwin today.

• NT’s largest mango operation facing $14m loss due to worker shortage
• Hundreds of international workers to quarantine, work in the NT

AN NT Farmers charter flight from Vanuatu carrying 160 desperately needed seasonal workers for this year’s mango harvest will touch down in Darwin Tuesday.

All workers will undertake 14 days of supervised quarantine at the Howard Springs quarantine facility.

NT Farmers Association chief executive Paul Burke said the workers will play a critical role in saving this year’s multimillion dollar mango crop.

“Their work will ensure that the best Territory mangoes will arrive on supermarket shelves around Australia this season,” Mr Burke said.

“We are extremely relieved that these workers are finally arriving, many farmers feared that they would not be able to harvest their mangoes due to Australia’s severe worker shortage. The workers are saving farmers from financial ruin and are making an enormous contribution to the Territory’s agricultural industry.”