The ‘Ripe & Ready’ program has been managed by Avocados Australia and funded through the Australian Government's Package Assisting Small Exporters program (PASE), Sunfresh, The Avolution and the Avocado Export Company. Avocados Australia Chief Executive Officer John Tyas said promoting high-quality Ripe & Ready avocados in key Asian markets was an important part of the country’s longer-term export goals.
“One of the challenges that we have had from the start of the program was the reluctance of retailers to offer a ‘ripe’ product for consumers,” Mr Tyas said. “This reluctance is typically driven by the additional cost and risk in providing this offering. However, we have been able to convince some key retailers that there is a benefit of additional sales, warranting the investment in managing a ‘ripe’ offering and we are now starting to see the benefits of the work undertaken to date. To support the development of the ‘Ripe & Ready’ program, Avocados Australia, with the Department of Agriculture & Fisheries Queensland and the exporters involved in the program, has been providing support and training to importers and retailers in key markets, as well as tailored information brochures for consumers.”
Mr Tyas said at the final event in Malaysia, hosted by Euro-Atlantic and featuring nutritionist and media personality Alexandra Prabaharan, reiterated the main messages of the project regarding the boost in sales from retailing ripe avocados, and the nutritional benefits of avocados.
At the moment, the bulk of Australia’s production is from the central east coast of Australia - Central Queensland (50%), with picking also now underway in Central New South Wales (19%), Sunshine Coast (12%) and South Queensland (11%). There is still some fruit entering the market from North Queensland and some smaller amounts from Tamborine/Northern Rivers and Tristate.
“We don’t expect any significant volumes of New Zealand fruit to enter the market until August/September,” Mr Tyas said. “Weekly dispatch so far in July has been between 250,000 and 360,000 trays/week, close to our seasonal forecasts. It’s also significantly higher than dispatches during the same period last year; this is a combination of a good season and the increasing yield trend we’re expecting to see as new trees come online in the coming years.”
"Importantly for our consumers, avocado quality has been good and we’ve seen quite a lot of larger fruit this year, due to very favourable growing conditions," Mr Tyas said. "The outlook for the rest of this calendar year is for solid consistent supply.
The industry is also looking at expanding into other export markets, and Mr Tyas says Thailand used to be a very good market for Australia, and there is potential for it to be so again. There was a new quarantine protocol introduced in 2013, but it is not commercially feasible, so there has been no trade since then - however, he says the Australian Government has been working with the Thai government to develop a workable protocol.
"We don’t export to New Zealand because the protocol is very difficult," Mr Tyas said. "I think some exporters might be looking at it again, given domestic demand in New Zealand is also growing quite strongly. New Zealand supplies the Australian market during our peak demand period (summer) and there’s certainly potential for us to provide fruit to New Zealand during the Australian heavy supply periods in the middle of the year."
The Australian avocado industry was recently taken by storm by the new variety, "Avozilla", and while there is only one grower at the point of commercial production at the moment, it is believed there is a second grower in Central Queensland who has planted the Avozilla. But they are some way from commercial production. In this case, Mr Tyas understands the current growers, the Groves family, fielded more than 500 media calls from Australian and international outlets.
"The Avozilla is a fairly niche variety, but the Australian grower now has lots of demand given the extraordinary media attention," he said. "Anything new in the avocado arena sparks a lot of interest. The word from the first commercial growers, the Groves family from Bungundarra in Australia’s Central Queensland growing region, is that the taste is very buttery, something that they tested before committing to a commercial planting. From an agronomic point of view, we understand the Avozilla has a nice thick skin, which helps protect the fruit somewhat from bites and stings, but they are heavy and swing easily in the wind which can lead to skin blemishes."
For more information:John Tyas
Avocados Australia
Phone: +61 7 3846 6566
admin@avocado.org.au
www.avocado.org.au