Jasper Farms owner and Avocado Producers Committee member Neil Delroy says Australia’s total production is between 57,500 to 60,000 per year, with between 30% to 40% coming from Western Australia.
“It’s pretty hard to get accurate figures with so many factors to consider, but in excess of 20,000 tonnes came out of WA last year, and over 97% of all fruit goes to the domestic Australian market,” he says.
When combined with another 10,000 to 10,500 tonnes from New Zealand, Mr Delroy says Australia’s total consumption last year was around 68,000 tonnes .
“It’s about 3.2 kilograms per capita at the moment, and I think in the next 5 to 7 years that will increase to around 5.5 kilos per capita with current plantings coming on stream”
The steady rise in demand coupled with reasonable pricing has seen many growers expanding their production, as well as new growers entering the market.“There’s a lot of people planting now,” Mr Delroy says. “We’ve got 221 hectares in production at the moment which produced over 6000 tonnes this past season, and another 120 hectares in the ground at a new property that will start coming into production next season.”
“We have capacity for 170 to 175 hectares there, so we’ll continue to plant there. That’ll bring our production close to 400 hectares, and then we may look at planting at another property we have purchased at Marybrook,” he says.
Avowest owner Alan Blight says the health benefits and versatility of avocados are major reasons consumer demand is so strong across the country
“The avocado industry, particularly in WA, has grown strongly and with new trees still being planted production will continue to increase,” he says, adding that WA may be producing even more fruit than official figures suggest.
Data from wholesale trading facility Market City shows that production in WA increased from 6,616 tonnes in 2013–14 to 21,836 tonnes in 2014–15, Mr Blight points out that “a lot of fruit is handled outside the markets now.”
“Nonetheless there is growth in sales and I expect this to continue.”
Mr Blight – who is also a member of the state’s Avocado Producers Committee – currently has 20 hectares of avocados in production at Carabooda (north of capital city Perth), and another 10 hectares coming on line at a farm further to the north in Gingin.
“We’ve also started to planting another 10 or so hectares in Carabooda this year.”
He says 2015 was his best year yet and 2016 is looking fair at this stage.
“My particular growing area north of Perth can be a little difficult for avocado production due to high temperatures. Fortunately it is also difficult for pests and diseases of avocados, which allows us to produce high quality avocados with a minimum of pesticides,” he says.
“The trees carry their fruit for nearly the full year in my area and if the trees experience problems in that time they are quite happy to drop their crop. We thus have to be "on the ball", particularly this time of the year. Fortunately I have good staff working with me to keep an eye on things.”
He adds that the picking and packing equipment is also designed to be gentle on fruit and encourage rapid transit “so that we can get our avocados to the retailers as quickly as possible. This helps to maximise fruit quality.”
Mr Delroy also emphasises the importance of a streamlined production and supply chain process.
“Going forward the industry needs to make sure the quality of the avocados reaching consumers is improved,” he says.
“This past season we managed to pack 98% of our avocados within 24 hours of picking. We then pulled the temperature down 4.5 to 5 degrees Celsius when transporting them and set the containers on delivery air rather than return air so that temperatures did not go below 4 degrees and cause chilling injury.”
“Then avocados are warmed up and ripened just before reaching consumers to so that they are ready ripe to eat. Our supply chain management is world’s best practice to ensure avocados arrive at the retailers in the best possible condition.”He says growers in Australia will have to be aware of other risks, including over-planting and the potential for imports from countries with lower production costs, such as Mexico, Peru and Chile.
“Their labour costs are very low compared to ours…in some cases we could be paying 10 times more for labour, so that obviously has an impact on pricing and competition.”
At this stage the majority of avocados in Australia are sold domestically, with strict biosecurity requirements impacting on the potential for export to Asian markets. But Mr Blight says this may change in the future.
“The industry is trying to address this at the moment, which would also help to open up Chinese market.”
For more information:
Neil Delroy
Jasper Farms
Tel: +61 897 533 322
Email: neil@agribusiness.com.au
www.jasperfarms.com
Alan Blight
Avowest
Email: avowest@bigpond.com
www.apcwa.org.au