A Boeing 777 will depart Darwin this evening with more than 50 tonnes of mangoes on board, in what Cathay Pacific Cargo says is the start of a new "Mango Express" into Asia.
With the mango season peaking in the Northern Territory, the airliner has committed to running a weekly service out of Darwin for five weeks.
Cathay Pacific's regional head of cargo, Nigel Chynoweth, said the first flight would see NT mangoes delivered to Hong Kong, South Korea, and Dubai.
"Darwin now has a state-of-the-art [export] facility with a vapour heat treatment (VHT) plant on site for mangoes, which is critical to its success," he said.
"For us to be able to uplift mangoes [to Hong Kong] with next-day connection to a number of destinations is perfect."
Mr Chynoweth said Cathay Pacific had spent the past few years developing the "Cherry Express" out of Hobart and hoped mango exports from Darwin would be similarly successful.
It is estimated 285 tonnes of NT mangoes will be exported over the next five weeks while the service is running.
From Darwin to the world
Over the past 18 months, the Northern Territory has exported small volumes of mangoes, pumpkins, and rockmelons into Asia.
But according to Robert Hall from Pak Fresh Handling and Seaway Logistics, one of the big developments this year was the company's new vapour heat treatment plant for mangoes.
"The treatment process allows us to export to countries like Korea and Japan," he said.
"It means the fruit meets international protocols and won't be carrying any disease or fruit flies.
"We've now treated our first chamber-load of NT mangoes, which was really exciting.
"It's been a long time coming because we've been working on this project for five years."
Exporting NT mangoes historically involved trucking fruit thousands of kilometres to Brisbane or Sydney to be put on a plane and flown back over Darwin.
Mr Hall said it was exciting to see NT produce going direct from Darwin to customers around the world.
"There are six substantially large markets that haven't been available ex-Darwin before, which we'll be doing this year with our airfreight partners," he said.
"The next five or six weeks will be very busy and NT produce will even be going through to Canada."
The latest crop forecast has the NT on track to produce 4.6 million trays (32,000 tonnes) of mangoes this season.
