It's official. Indian mangoes are now in the Australian market under a new protocol that growers in the South Asian country hope will be more amenable to good returns. 

Indian mango shipper Kay Bee Exports CEO Kaushal Khakhar has confirmed with Fresh Fruit Portal that a shipment of Kesar mangoes arrived on Wednesday and was cleared by customs on Thursday. 

"It was 408 boxes that traveled on a Singapore Airlines flight from Mumbai - it was a very quick connection, arriving in Sydney on Wednesday morning," Khakar said.

"The arrival quality has been pretty good except for a few hiccups here and there...the weekend will be used to condition the mangoes.

"Some time will be spent ripening them further, because we ship them semi-ripe. We don’t ship them fully ripe, so there is some flexibility for the importer to condition it; if they keep it in a colder area it will take longer to ripen and if they keep it in an ambient area it ripens very fast."

He said there were expectations the fruit would be sold in the market early next week.

"We have been very conservative so I am aware that the market is new and everybody has been very cautious, and justifiably so, so we’re going to await the first sale before making any new business transactions.

"I stand by my comments that Australia will be able to import large volumes of fruit from India. These are still very early days," he said, referring to an interview with SBS. 

"The American market has been doubling volume for us every year. I think the Australian market will also start slow for the first few years, but it will definitely pick up place because it’s a strong product. 

"If the market gets what they are looking for, I think there is a good possibility to do some long-term business."

In the interview ahead of the shipment's arrival he told SBS pricing would likely be a challenge for the fruit as imported produce would likely be more expensive than locally-sourced production.

"Anything which is air-flown, especially from long distance, will have to deal with the price challenge," he told the broadcaster. 

www.freshfruitportal.com