"Everything is in our favour so far"

The South African avocado export is going well to date, 2.6m of the estimated 13.5 cartons have already been exported.

Derek Donkin, CEO of South African Avocado Grower's Association, (SAAGA) said that the season so far has been going according to schedule with no major delays. The harvest is going well and the weather has been good.

"Everything is in our favour so far, we are even enjoying good prices on the market just now too. However this will change when the volumes from Peru come on the market, we have heard that their season has been delayed due to rain in some production areas," explains Donkin.

South Africa is still building up to full volumes, from next week on (wk19) the volumes will be at a good level when the Hass variety comes fully on stream.

South Africa sends 97% of export avocados to the EU, a small amount goes to the Middle East and a very small volume goes to the Far East.

"This won't change in the immediate future as South Africa doesn't have access to China, Thailand or Japan, but we are busy working on this. Our industry is also growing so this would not affect volumes to EU," according to Donkin.

Avocado production is rapidly expanding in South Africa, at a rate of around 500 ha of new plantings each year. These new plantings will average between 10-12 tonnes per ha when in full production, that is an extra 1.25m cartons per annum. These extra volumes will supply the growing domestic as well as the export market.

Donkin explains that figures for the domestic sales are difficult to access as there's no figure on what goes into the informal sector in South Africa but he says the domestic market has definitely grown in pace with growing production. Africa is also a potential market, it is growing off a low base."

A lot of the avocado going to Southern African countries is sold through the retail chains as they have the logistical set-up to do that, logistics in general to Africa are not good.

As well as good prices in Europe, growers are also satisfied with domestic prices. The domestic market is fragmented and export quality as well as 2nd and 3rd grade fruit goes here.

For more information:
Derek Donkin
SAAGA
Tel:+27 15 307 3676
Email: info@subtrop.co.za