“We’ve had three very different seasons due to very different weather conditions in the growing regions”

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Honey Gold mango producer Piñata Farms achieved a high packout rate and excellent quality fruit during the 2024-2025 season.

The 14-week season, which wrapped up in early February, resulted with volumes on a par to the past two seasons, sales and marketing manager Rebecca Scurr said.

“We’ve had three very different seasons due to very different weather conditions in the growing regions, yet all have resulted in a good season. This is evidence of the variety’s growing consistency,” she said.

“We had the highest percentage of customer acceptance rate that we have ever achieved and some excellent feedback from retailers, the public, and industry colleagues about the fruit’s appearance and taste. Strong support from key customers meant we were able to plan the program and deliver every day for 14 weeks.


Rebecca Scurr at Piñata Farms, Katherine, Northern Territory.

Win-win across the season
“The 2024-2025 season was extremely challenging at our own farms in the Northern Territory due to pre-season conditions, which affected flowering. However, the four main Queensland growing regions in Bowen, Mareeba, Rockhampton and Bundaberg, produced a consistently great crop and production flowed nicely from one region to the next.”

She said the season had exceeded predictions for a light season following a less than favourable flowering at Piñata’s three Northern Territory farms.

Despite challenges such as heavy rain at Mareeba leading up to the season, excellent grower practices throughout the regions resulted in quality fruit, she said.

“It was a win-win for customers who had access to great quality fruit for a good price, retailers who were able to offer a consistent product with a beautiful shelf presence and third-party growers who received a consistent, fair price.”

Piñata Farms has a network of some 25 third-party growers in the Northern Territory, Queensland, and Western Australia, producing mangoes throughout the summer. Many have been growing Honey Golds since the variety was first commercialised in 2002.

Sold under the Honey Gold brand, the mangoes are distributed to leading supermarkets nationally. Piñata Farms has an approximate 10 per cent share of the Australian mango market.

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Source: The Plantations International Agroforestry Group of Companies