In spite of this season's light crop, mangoes grown by Peter and Julie Tucker -outside of Mundubbera, in the North Burnett region- have been selling out quicker than ever. Tucker said the Kensington Pride variety, also known as Bowen mangoes, tended to be temperamental when it came to consistency.
"We've got a very light crop this year. That's just the habit of Kensington Pride mangoes, they are what we call shy bearers. You might get three or four years of good crops and then you'll get a bad one, there's just something inherently in their makeup."
"It seems to be universal and it quite often happens in all the different regions in the same year; this year it has been light all the way through, in the Northern Territory and all through northern Queensland too.”
The Tuckers also grow table grapes, specialising in the black muscat variety. Tucker said their grapes were successful due to the niche market that they had tapped into, being the only Queensland growers to sell that variety of table grapes through Queensland central markets.
Source: queenslandcountrylife.com.au