South African supply already arriving
High avocado prices on EU market
Spain is selling its final volumes, which are reaching prices of around 14 Euro per case for the scarce commercial calibres 18, 20 and 22.
"We barely have any avocados and there is some panic amongst large European distributors, as we are finding it impossible to fill their orders," stated Óscar Martínez, of the export department of Reyes Gutiérrez.
"Israel's campaign has already finished and Morocco only has second-class fruit and small calibres, for which the market is willing to pay high prices. Furthermore, there are hardly any Chilean avocados left, with their final Hass avocado shipments not reaching more than 200 tonnes," explains Óscar Martínez.
The lack of supply was confirmed by a Dutch importer today, who said the shortage would last for around 4 weeks. Although an importer in the UK said the greenskins were short, but still available at a price and the supply of Hass was normal for the time of year.
Peru is certainly struggling this season, due to heavy rain which has delayed the avocados from the Southern regions by around 3 weeks and supply won't recover until April when the Northern areas can supply.
The South Africans on the other hand are on schedule with the shipments.
According to Derek Donkin, CEO of SAAGA, "Last week 200 tonnes arrived in Europe, both greenskins and Hass varieties, and this week another 800 tonnes is expected. The volume will continue to increase up to week 16 when it will level out."
According to Graham Ballard, Global Technical Manager at Halls, there has been the usual expected intermittent late summer rains over the last few weeks. However, to date, this has not proved to be a major factor that has caused any significant operational interruption to harvest.
"The past summer production season has been relatively dry which has aided fruit quality at packing. Fruit size will typically remain unaffected where orchard health and irrigation is of an optimum standard," said Ballard.
The avocado harvest in the early areas of South Africa started in week 9 and supply is expected to be normal this season. At the moment is it primarily the Fuerte variety which started to arrive in week 12.
Ballard said, "Should the current supply of 400k cartons of greenskins per week remain constant the market outlook would remain positive. At this point it is too early to comment on European summer supply of Hass."
Provided exporters are following a rigorous maturity assessment program, quality of ripened fruit should be of a superior standard.
Overall volumes from South Africa will are estimated to be 13.5 million 4.5kg cartons, down 20% compared to last year due to an off-year in production, Donkin said it would have been more than 20% but new plantings have made up some of shortfall.