One of Australia's largest family-owned fresh produce companies has secured the rights to grow two Israeli-developed mango varieties, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

Perfection Fresh, which already owns the exclusive rights to market the Calypso variety and licensed the trademark on Australian Pearl mangoes, has now entered into an agreement to grow the Shelly and Agam cultivars.

Chief executive Michael Simonetta said the company had started trialling the mangoes on farms at Mareeba in Queensland and further trial plantings were underway near Darwin in the Northern Territory.

"I need to emphasise that we've only done a small number of trials at the moment," he was quoted as saying.

"But the mangoes are responding well with the Australian climate and their flavour is very nice," he told the broadcaster. 

"[The Shelly mango] is very close to a Kensington Pride (KP) mango when it comes to taste, but for me it has attributes which are better than a KP, in that it has a better shelf-life and is not as susceptible to post-harvest diseases."

Simonetta said both varieties were yielding fruit earlier in the season compared to Kensington Prides, which gave them a market advantage.

He added the company would continue to analyze the trials and in the next 12 to 18 months make a decision on how to progress with commercial plantings.

In accordance with the agreement struck with Israel's Volcani Centre, both mangoes will be rebranded by Perfection Fresh once they reach commercialization, the story said, the story reported. 

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