Yeppoon mango pick dirty work after rain

David Groves is field manager at Groves Grown Tropical Fruits and said even though they experienced 300mm of rain, fruit still had to come off the orchards 9000 trees.

"We have never picked in rain like that before, we have always just walked away and came back when it cleared up, but we had no tree-life left in the fruit so it was that or watch them all fall off," he said.

"Everything is muddy, the tractors are caked in it, we don't like driving on the farm when it is this wet, but we don't have much choice because the fruit it not going to wait.

"It is what it is and we are getting the crop off.

With cool, wet weather and a large mango flowering event in north of the state , the Central Queensland growing region is harvesting slightly later than expected.

With the fruit at risk of not displaying perfectly due to the wet, Mr Groves said he was happy with the condition of the Honey Gold mangoes being picked under the challenging conditions.

"It actually worked out better than I was expecting," he said.

"Usually we get skin browning from the fruit being pumped-up from all the extra rain water, minor bumps and things on the skin, but we were just more gentle with the fruit and gave them more time to firm-up in the bins before packing.

"It seems to be working, we have done a few big days in the packing shed and can't see any noticeable downgrade in quality."

With low prices for mangoes this season, Mr Groves said he was at the "mercy of the markets" for the the prices his fruit would fetch.

RELATED READING

But the farm also produces lychees, which have had a solid season so far, and soon they will harvest avocados, which he also hopes will have an improvement on price compared to last year.

With blue sky finally breaking through and chasing away the days of rain - Mr Groves and the Groves Grown Tropical Fruits crew are still battling mud but are staying dry.

They captured a photo of the team submerged underwater but holding fruit and thumbs up as a way of expressing just how wet the harvest felt after a long day in the paddocks.

"We were all soaked anyway, so thought we would jump in and give a mango thumbs up," he said.

"We have a great crew this year and everyone was trying to have a bit of fun," he said.

"it's not the best conditions but we all try and support each other."

THE muddy conditions led to a quick fix in the mango orchard as the crew attempted to move the bin runners used to cart the fruit.

The orchard luckily has access to gravel and farm hands turned into road workers to help the machines keep moving and limit damage to the ground.

"We were running out of alternate routes to get the fruit out of the paddock," he said.

"If you drive over headlands (end of tree rows) 30 or 40 times and they start to break-up and you get bogged.

"So we carted a bit of stone and filled up the holes, and we are lucky we have a quarry on the farm and that kinda thing is doable, others aren't in that position and have to give up when it's like that."

Mango harvest will be complete before the end of January in the region.

Queensland produces approximately 40,000 tonnes of mangoes a year, about half of Australia's total mango production.

Sign up here to Good Fruit and Vegetables weekly newsletter for all the latest horticulture news each Thursday...