Hass avocados
Eitan Zvi, Marketing VP at Galilee Export, estimates that about 90,000 tonnes will be produced, and more or less 50,000 tonnes will be exported. “This is about average if you look at the last five years”, he says. Last year’s record season followed a low season with less than 80,000 tonnes produced and only about 42,000 tonnes exported. He expected this year’s volumes to increase, since there is a growing number of avocado plantations in Israel, “but I don’t see that happening,” Eitan says.
Market situation
Since there is a huge shortage of greenskins, they are reaching record high prices of between EUR 11 and EUR 12. “I expect this to stay at this level until somewhere in October,” he says. “Then the Israeli Ettinger will come on to the market and the prices will drop a little.” Eitan expects Hass prices to remain stable at about EUR 12. This is the average for this variety. “It may climb by about 1 EUR because Peru is coming to the end of their season,” he says. Chile is the main player in this market in October/November, but their volumes have not increased since last year.
Pinkerton avocados
Galilee will start exporting light volumes of early varieties of greenskins, such as the Galil and Day, towards the end of next week, for about three weeks. This will be followed by far larger volumes of the Ettinger at the end of September. Europe is their main market. “This includes Russia,” says Eitan. “More than 10% of the total volume of Israeli avocados go to Russia”, he explains.
Export to the main countries in Asia, such as China and India, is low at the moment. “We are hoping these markets will open soon,” says Eitan.
For more information:
Eitan Zvi
Galilee Export
Tel: +972 3 653 9014
Mob: +972 54 485 9344
eitan.z@galil-export.com
galilee-export.com