"This year we will grow by 50% in the marketing of Peruvian avocados"

The Spanish avocado campaign is practically finished more than two weeks earlier than usual, given the reduction in this year's production. The Malaga-based company Alcoaxarquia, which has its own production and packaging plant in Peru, will continue to supply avocados from this origin, with which it has grown by 50% in terms of volume this year. Furthermore, the company is no longer using any plastic for its tropical fruit and citrus packaging.

"It has been about fifteen days since we last had consistent volumes of Spanish avocados in the market. At the moment, there is still some production in Valencia, but yields have been lower due to the impact of the wind. It is also becoming clear that not all producing areas are suitable to grow avocados in Spain," says José Antonio Alconchel, manager of Alcoaxarquía.

The Malaga-based company has been supplying Peruvian avocados since March and expects to continue doing so until week 44. Over the last few weeks, the European market has been supplied with avocados from Israel, Morocco, Spain and Mexico, although Peruvian avocados are currently facing little competition."

The Peruvian season is going better than expected, with a 50% growth in terms of volume compared to last year. "This season we will reach 12,000 tons marketed, and we expect to reach 35,000 tons in the next 3 years. This certainly was the right decision, since having our own production in this country gives us the chance to position ourselves in the market for a longer period of time," says José Antonio. "We have also invested in new facilities in Peru with the capacity for 400 containers per season and the option of doubling this amount in future years. We are thus consolidating a project that we started last year and which we are very excited about."

They also continue to expand in Spain, where they have already acquired 140 new hectares of organic avocados in Huelva and Cadiz, and have carried out the second expansion of their packaging plant in Malaga, with capacity for 170 pallets per day. A great investment has been made in robotic technology for handling and packaging and in integrated traceability systems, making use of solar energy. "The company expects to reach a turnover of 120 million Euro in the next few years," says José Antonio Alconchel.

Organic production and plastic-free; 100% compostable packaging
Alcoaxarquia is specialized in the organic production of avocados, mangoes and citrus fruits. In fact, in the next few years it expects its entire production to be organic. The company can already boast of having fully eliminated the use of plastic in all its packaging.

We have been adapting our packaging machinery to use only biocompostable materials for all our fruits for some years now. As a replacement for plastic, we use cotton netting with 100% compostable banding and labels, recycled cardboard and laser labeling. "We are fully committed to sustainability in the entire process, from the cultivation of the organic product up until its handling and packaging," says the manager of Alcoaxarquia.