Honey Gold mango producer Piñata Farms has ended the season on a high with a record January up 43 per cent in volume, and just less than its record season in 2022-2023. 

Managing director Gavin Scurr says initial predictions were for a light season following a poor winter flowering due to irregular cool snaps in key growing regions. 

However, Piñata’s own farms in Darwin, Katherine and Mataranka in the Northern Territory produced a reasonable crop between mid-November and mid-December before third-party growers in Queensland harvested a bumper crop in January. 

“Despite two cyclones and record rainfall in Far North Queensland, our third-party growers defied their own predictions of a light crop, with all Queensland growers producing a good crop,” Mr Scurr says. 

“For some it was the biggest crop they’ve ever had,” he says. 

“Growers in cyclone and flood-affected regions executed their well mapped-out contingency plans. They were right on top of disease and did not risk leaving fruit on trees any longer than they needed.” 

The Mareeba district had more than its average annual rainfall of 900mm between mid-December and mid-January, right at harvest time. 

“Weather conditions caused a convergence of fruit from multiple growing regions – with growers in Mareeba running late and Gladstone, Bundaberg and southern Queensland running early – resulting in an extremely busy January. The last Honey Gold was picked on February 19. 

“Some of these growers have been with us since the beginning of the Honey Gold journey in 2002 and they drew on knowledge of the variety and their long-term mango growing experience to work with the conditions,” Mr Scurr explains. 

The variety is also, typically, more consistent and adaptable than many other varieties, he says. 

Sales up on 2022-2023 

Mr Scurr says pre-Christmas sales were excellent due to smaller volumes of mangoes in the market, but that rebounded to below average in January – yet overall resulted in an average price which was up on the previous season. 

“Our national retail customers commended us on the quality of fruit all season and we’ve had excellent feedback from consumers all over Australia,” he says. 

Piñata Farms has a network of some 30 third-party growers producing Honey Gold mangoes in the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia across a combined 570ha. 

Piñata Farms will share Honey Gold season outcomes at the annual Honey Gold Congress in Cairns from May 19, where the annual Grower of the Year will be announced. 

Mr Scurr says his family’s farming business is based at Wamuran on the Sunshine Coast in south-east Queensland, in the heart of pineapple country. 

HIs family have been growing pineapples since his father Geoff started producing the fruit in the 1960s. 

He says he and his brother Gavin, and their children, grew up planting, picking and packing pineapples on the family farm.   

“Today, our home farm – including pineapple and strawberry fields, raspberry operations, packing shed and headquarters – is still in the original district,” Mr Scurr says. 

“We now operate Piñata Farms from Wamuran, near Brisbane, and Mareeba in Queensland’s far north, where we pioneered large-scale pineapple production in the 1990s,” he says. 

“Piñata Farms is now Australia’s largest pineapple producer and the only one to supply fresh pineapples all year. 

“We’re proud to be among Australia’s leading producers of summer and winter strawberries. As well as holding the rights to grow specialty our Honey Gold mangoes, along with joint venture partner, BerryWorld Group, we produce specialty berries for BerryWorld Australia. 

“Our fruit is grown on our own farms, and farms owned by some 30 third-party family growers spread over five states. They produce pineapples and mangoes under contract for us; and are as dedicated to quality as we are.” 

Mr Scurr says their pineapple breeding program, run in partnership with Queensland’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, investigates the commercial potential of multiple new varieties each year. 

Just as, he says, their mango breeding program in South Africa has prospective varieties under trial, and they continue to trial strawberry varieties at Wamuran and Stanthorpe. 

Piñata Farms is a member of peak business and horticultural bodies including Growcom, Northern Territory Mango Industry Association, Queensland Strawberries, Strawberries Australia and the Pineapple Industry Advisory Committee. 

Mr Scurr is a board member and former chairman of the Australian Mango Industry Association (AMIA) and is on the board of the NT Farmers Association. 

And continuing the tradition, various members of the Scurr family still work throughout the business, alongside more than 70 full-time employees and up to 500 seasonal workers.