“Yess!” New Mangoes

Australian Farmers: Telling Our Story

The look, the smell and the taste all conjure images of the Australian summer. Mangoes are a family favourite in many households and a sign of warmer days and holidays ahead. Now, there’s not just one but three new mango varieties on offer to customers. They’re called ‘Yess!’ ‘Ahhh!’ and ‘Gee!’. Sounds like fun but it means we all benefit from more choice at the checkout. So, how do they stack up against more traditional varieties? Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries Senior Principal Horticulturalist Ian Bally joins me now to give some insight into this exciting new development.

• As a man in the business of developing new fruit varieties, we find out where most of Ian’s work as a Principal Horticulturalist is carried out.
• Ian talks about the three new mango varieties he has had a hand in developing and, their relationship to the family favourite mango - Kensington Pride.
• Ian has over 40 years in tropical fruit tree research and shares his role working for the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.
• How it feels for Ian to work on a project like this that ends up directly benefiting consumers.
• Where do you start when researching varieties to cross-breed with other mangos?
• The process of hand pollination to create these hybrid mango varieties.
• It can take up to 20 years from pollination to finally bring a mango to market.
• How these new varieties differ from ones currently on shelves and how they taste.
• Farmers are constantly working to improve disease resistance and shelf-life and how much can we really change.
• The trial names of ‘Yess!’ ‘Ahhh!’ and ‘Gee!’ for these mangos.
• Ian shares what it is like to be a horticulturalist conducting research and what he finds appealing about it.
• The most common misconception about developing new fruit varieties.
• The future for the industry and what we can expect to see next in the fruit world.

We hope to see you back on the road soon, to learn more about how Australia grows on the next episode of Australian Farmers with Angie Asimus.

Links:

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Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries

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