Exports of Dominican tropical avocados expanding to Europe
The U.S. Department of Agriculture funded Exporting Quality program is helping Miguel and other exporters in these areas. His company is located right outside of the capital in Cambita, the center of the country’s tropical green skinned avocado production and packing industry, where it holds five different avocado varieties, making it able to supply avocados eleven months of the year.
Because of its world tourist destination status with 6 million visitors a year, the Dominican Republic has one of the most direct air connections with Europe in the Latin American region, including 14 direct flights a week to Moscow during winter.
“We were able to see the packaging parameters for the European market, as well as how they ensure the quality of the products, along with the weight and size requirements. The cold chain management was also very good, this trip allowed us to learn the industry’s paradigms” stated the avocado exporter Miguel Gonzalez.
Dominican tropical avocado exporters pretty much ignored exporting to Europe because of limited demand, higher transportation costs, and the susceptibility of tropical avocados to damage in transit. Something to take under consideration is that eighty-five percent of Dominican Republic avocado production is tropical avocados, holding a 98 percent share of U.S. imports of tropical avocados and also holding a total monopoly on that segment during the winter months, when its only competitor (the state of Florida) is not producing.
All that changed in March 2015 when the US imposed a ban on avocado exports to the US because of the outbreak of the Mediterranean fruit fly. Dominican exporters began to experiment with air and maritime shipments of tropical avocados to Europe where the primary competitor is Brazil, which has a different harvest period.
Nevertheless, Gonzalez acknowledged that now that they have learned what they need to do to ensure quality thanks to the beneficial trip from the Exporting Quality program, they can start implementing all these new tactics, therefore increasing the exports of tropical avocados to Europe.
For more information:
Miguel Gonzalez
Grupo 33
Tel: 809 610 0749
miguelgr33@hotmail.com