The mango harvest from collapsed Australian managed investment firm Reward’s Kununurra plantation is well in hand, the group in charge of the operation said today, responding to concerns circulating earlier this week that the crop would not be picked.
The Ord Valley orchard has continued to be managed by the Dobson family since the Rewards Group’s receivership in May, said Michael Bugelly, president of the Rewards Grower Advocacy Group (RGAG), the body that has taken up funding of the collapsed company’s projects.
Mr Bugelly explained that speculations there would be an inferior crop or no harvest from the 120,000 trees this year were incorrect.
“The Dobsons have been maintaining the project, and they’ll start harvesting there in about a week and a half to two weeks,” he told Fruitnet.com today, adding that funding was in place to ensure the harvest and packing of the crop is carried out.
Access to Rewards’ mango packhouse is the biggest remaining hurdle to the harvest, which last year accounted for around 25 per cent of Western Australia’s mango output.
“That at the moment hasn’t been resolved,” Mr Bugelly said. “The administrators are in discussion with the receivers about the packhouse. If they can’t reach an agreement, we have alternative sources that are ready to move. There’s enough packing capacity available `at other facilities`.”
To sell the crop of R2E2 and Kensington Pride mangoes, the RGAG has appointed new marketing agents this year with good connections to Australia’s main retailers, explained Mr Bugelly.
“We’re pretty confident that almost 100 per cent of the fruit is committed or presold,” he told Fruitnet.com. “The fruit won’t be marketed under the Rewards brand, but we haven’t finalised how the fruit will be branded yet. That’s going to be up to the marketing agents.”
Export programmes are also still in development, but with the Australian mango crop down in volume on last year and early pricing looking solid on the domestic market, Mr Bugelly said the need for exports is likely to be diminished this season.
While the future ownership of Rewards’ Kununurra mango project is still very much in doubt, the potential of the plantation – one of the biggest in the country – is clear according to Mr Bugelly.
“It still hasn’t reached its full potential, and over the next 12-18 months it will achieve that,” he said. “The ownership is still to be decided, and that depends on a number of factors. But the project is cash-flow positive.”
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