As the South African avocado harvest gets underway industry predictions are that the volume will be up 40% on last season. Craig Lewis, Commercial Director at Halls is cautiously optimistic that Halls will be above the industry average at around 60%, this is due to a few factors such as last year's severe drought which reduced everyone's volumes. Some of Halls' grower partners have dry land orchards which really kick in when it rains again, there is also new production coming in and yields are up due to improved farming practices. There have also been a few isolated hailstorms in Nelspruit but no widespread damage. Unfortunately one of our biggest growers did get hit by hail twice." Craig goes on to say that sizes are looking good across their regions, and are expected to continue to do so with the recent late rains. 
Halls' total avocado hectares is approximately 1500ha and are broken down into own managed orchards and their growers partners’ orchards. The company are also looking to plant 250 new hectares each year for the coming 3-5 years. "This would be a combination between our own farms, current grower partners and new grower partners," explains Craig. "Whilst this is an ambitious number the buoyancy in the avocado market has resulted in a very positive climate for agriculture in South Africa."
Supply can't keep up with the demand from the established markets such as Europe and North America, and then there are still the lesser known markets in Asia (China excluded as they are ramping up fast) and Middle East. Although South Africa cannot supply the USA or China yet, statistics from the World Avocado Organisation (WAO) are certainly very encouraging according to Craig and the Halls European marketing teams based in the UK, France, Holland, Spain and Germany are constantly hungry for South African fruit.
At the moment Halls export is 60-40% green/hass but the focus is to change that around to be 60-40% hass/green skin over time, so a lot of the new plantings are on the various Hass varieties.
There is also increased demand within South Africa, although not to the scale of the other overseas markets and locally the market is extremely price sensitive. The South African market is still quite focussed on greenskins, but Hass is becoming more popular.
"We are constantly looking at new varieties and, for instance, we have Maluma both on order and planted. When it comes to lengthening the season, new varietals are important but also different geographic areas and non-conventional avocado growing regions will play an important part. Traditionally we have focussed on the current orthodox regions but avocados can grow in remarkable places and it is possible to ultimately have year round supply. As an example we are not completely sure when in the calendar the Western Cape would be come into avocado production and there is always the potential to move northwards of the South African border. There are many options which we are exploring for the future."
Halls have now, together with Du Roi, developed their own nursery for premium trees to enable them to supply growers with trees. The waiting time for trees at some of the top grade nurseries in South Africa can be between 8 and 10 years.
Halls are also investigating investing in soft citrus on land not suited to avocados which may become an alternate product for them in the close future. This is an interesting twist in history as many years ago they were the biggest citrus producer in the Southern Hemisphere before changing their focus to avo.
For more information:
Craig Lewis
Halls
Tel: +27 (0) 13 753 5781
craiglewis@halls.co.za
www.halls.co.za