In April, Morocco saw the end of this year’s avocado season. According to Karim Mortada of Abaz Societe Civile Agricole (SCA), the season had good prices, but a diminished production. “The market was good, as there was less volumes from other origins as well. The season was normal in length, though we did shift the amount of shipments during this period in order to optimize our prices. By starting slowly at the beginning of the season, prices begin to gradually rise up from the 15th of February up to the 15th of April. So we organized our shipments to get as much advantage from the market as possible.”According to Mortada, Chile finished a bit earlier than expected and produced fewer avocados than usual. Because of this, ABAZ SCA managed to get better prices a bit earlier in the season than last year, though there will always be some competition from Chile.
“Peruvian avocado growers were hit hard because of the bad weather, with floods and massive amounts of rain. They had faced logistical difficulties in bringing the goods within the country from production to packinghouses and in reaching the ports for export, due to damaged roads and fallen bridges’’.
The avocado season of Spain was pretty much identical to the one on Morocco. Mortada said that they had the same issues with volumes due to the heat in last summer. Spain also had problems with sizes. And also a lot of Spanish avocados were too small, while Moroccan sizes were better. ABAZ SCA managed to save required sizes up to the end of the season.
As for the prospects of new markets, Mortada mentions how this all depends on the volumes that are available. “This season, we weren’t even able to fully supply our regular clients. In September, we’ll know more about what our production volume is going to be and we’ll be able to determine our future strategy.”
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Karim Mortada