After a Peruvian avocado season with oversupply, low prices, and promotions, it is once again becoming clear that consumers prefer buying ready-to-eat fruit, even if they have to pay more for it. For retailers and ripeners, it is a challenge to obtain this fruit while keeping waste to a minimum. Thierry Athimon, Sales Director of Montosa, says that while production in Morocco and Portugal has grown a lot, his clients still prefer the Spanish origin. The company plans to continue expanding its business in Europe, both for fresh fruit and fresh guacamole, as avocado consumption continues to grow.
This season, the mango production has recovered after two consecutive campaigns with low volumes, and this is proving to be a year with quality fruit and a variety of sizes. As for avocados, a good harvest is forecast for both conventional and organic, following this year's heavy rains, although forecasts still depend on the weather, according to Thierry Athimon.
© Montosa"The 2024/25 national avocado season has been very good, with quality fruit, while Peru has had a difficult start, as the La Niña phenomenon took a toll on the crops, with fruit unable to ripen due to water stress," says Thierry. "Moreover, lenticel levels have been higher than in other years, and this has caused us more problems than expected. The increase in the Peruvian volume entering Europe destabilized the market and caused prices to fall, which traders benefited from, at the expense of fruit experts."
According to Montosa's Sales Director, "with so many promotions, consumers are getting lost because they are attracted by the low promotional prices of imported green fruit, but they don't like having to wait to eat it. Consumers don't buy in advance; they usually buy things to eat them the same day or the day after. If they have to wait a week to eat an avocado, consumption falls."
However, in general, Thierry confirms that avocado consumption is growing in all markets, and the forecast is that this will continue to be the case in the coming years. "Avocado is a healthy superfood and is increasingly becoming part of consumers' diets," he says.
"Morocco and Portugal are growing a lot, but our clients prefer Spanish fruit"
Montosa handles more than 40,000 tons of tropical fruit every year. "As Sales Director, I can say that volumes are never enough, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. What matters most is the value. At Montosa, we are immersed in an ambitious development plan for our premium brand, Sublime Gold, both for avocados and mangoes. We are confident in our capacity to offer the best returns to our grower partners, and to this end, we are relying on wholesalers to prescribe our quality produce."
Montosa is committed to working with fruit from Spain, where they have their own farms. To guarantee the supply, they work with more than 3,000 associated growers, half of whom are from Malaga. "We have been working with many of them for decades because getting quality fruit is essential," says Thierry.
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In order to be able to provide a year-round service, even when there is no national production, they also work with fruit from Peru and Chile. "In recent years, we have seen a greater volume from Morocco and Portugal. Especially in the 24/25 season, Morocco has grown a lot in terms of volume and will continue to do so. The market is expanding, and there is room for different origins, but our clients prefer Spanish fruit. Quality remains constant year after year, and that's precisely what clients are looking for," says Thierry. "Moroccan avocado is interesting as a complement for certain sizes, but there is a lack of investment there, and the fruit has a lot of lenticel," says Thierry.
According to Montosa's Sales Director, the commercial success of avocados has led to growth in all cultivation areas and access to new markets. Thus, in the last 10 years, the acreage devoted to avocados in Spain has multiplied by 2.3.
"At Montosa, we want to guarantee the control of quality raw material. Working with the production of our partners is the best option for us. They see our commitment to purchasing raw material year after year, and they comply with the necessary quality parameters. With this collaboration, we try to sell their entire production. We are always willing to visit new farms, validate the quality of the fruit, and study opportunities to include new growers in our planning. The whole process is validated by our agronomists."
"Consumers demand ready-to-eat fruit and are willing to pay more for it".
Thierry Athimon says: "Retailers want to directly control imports to keep prices down. This is a major challenge, because our clients are becoming competitors by managing the purchases at source and supervising the ripening. The truth is that consumers demand ready-to-eat fruit and are willing to pay more for it. This means discarding a lot of fruit, which makes the process more expensive, and households dislike having to throw fruit away or having to wait to eat it. We, experts in ripening, must work to reduce wastage and always aim to offer a product that is ready to eat."
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"At Montosa, sustainability is an essential part of our company culture. Part of the discards, such as fruit with aesthetic damage, which cannot be marketed, are used to make our guacamole," he says.
Fresh guacamole facilitates and democratizes avocado consumption
France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Spain are the markets where Montosa sells the most fruit by far and where the company finds the most opportunities. "In France, the annual consumption per inhabitant amounts to more than 2.3kg, while in Germany it is 1.5 kg. In Italy, which is recording the highest growth, consumption doesn't reach one kilo per capita per year. In Spain, 80% of households purchased avocados in the course of the year.
"The trend of consuming healthy foods, such as avocados, is a global one. Montosa's fresh guacamole facilitates consumption, as it is a ready-to-eat product made with at least 95% avocado, making consumption more accessible at any time of the day," he says.
Montosa was a pioneer in 2007, launching guacamole made from fresh avocados together with the largest supermarket chain in Spain. Other large tropical fruit-producing and marketing companies later followed in their footsteps. "It has been a great success. In a market with such potential for growth, it is normal for competitors to appear, but few have the same capacity. Producing and marketing fresh guacamole is a complicated process that requires a lot of investment. Guaranteeing the same flavor all year round is no easy task. You have to work with good fruit to get a good product, and our 18 years of expertise make all the difference. Our biggest developments are in Europe, outside Spain, where we have a high turnover and higher growth than the rest of the market, because consumers appreciate our recipes," says Thierry Athimon.
© MontosaFor more information:
Thierry Athimon
Montosa
Tel.: +34 689 099 541
[email protected]
www.montosa.com
