Halls and its Brazilian partners have been hard at work since 2017 developing Brazil as a global avocado supply origin. The favourable supply parameters of this production origin, and ideal orchard growing conditions, have yielded success for the partnership.
Halls, ACMH International and nationally recognised commercial farming operations, Campo de Ouro and Grupo Bonella, saw the first positive outcomes of avocado production in their 2017 deliveries. This was the first exported fruit from this origin into Europe from this partnership, and this has scaled and is now a differentiator for Halls International. The partnership provides flexibility of an alternative supply of fruit for its extensive customer base across Europe and China during the European summer supply window.
As a natural avocado origin, particular regions within Brazil provide a combination of favourable climate for production with suitable site elevation, soil, temperature and rainfall parameters, allowing for sustainable, high yielding avocado production. The 900ha of fully accredited Hass avocado orchards are managed through progressive farming techniques paying particular attention to fruit maturity levels to ensure the ideal harvest window and in turn delivering robust shelf life, an ideal eating quality fruit, and significantly reduced food waste.
This high-quality fruit can be effectively shipped from Brazil to European markets in just 15 days, facilitated by efficient packing facilities, good road infrastructure, effective shipping ports and reliable weekly shipping schedules to Europe.
This unique project is the result of a collaborative partnership between Stephane Hellin, founder of ACMH International, and Halls that was conceptualised in 2017. The opportunity to export high quality Hass out of Brazil was clearly identified from the onset. The challenge initially remained in identifying long term, sustainable grower partners who could effectively bring this potential to life.
The ideal partners for this venture were identified and are family owned with aligned values and a pioneering spirit. Ronaldo Morini Ferreira and his daughter Ana Krishna, owners of Campo de Ouro Farm in the Piraju region of São Paulo state, and José Alcides Bonella, and his son Fernando who farm in the later production region of Trȇs Corações within the state of Minas Gerais.
In the words of Stephane Hellin, “we are excited to partner with a family company whose deep heritage is grounded in farming, but who today possess global avocado marketing expertise, and an international footprint which now extends beyond Europe into exciting markets which are now opening up, such as China. The technical extension services provided to our farms and the values of developing authentic long-term relationships are what forms the basis of our partnership.”
Halls is delighted to be working with family orientated grower partners with a legacy that has been borne out of 130 years of their own farming heritage.
For more information:
Paul Devlin
Halls
Tel: +44 (0) 1892 723488
Email: paul@hlhall.co.uk