This year's avocado campaign began very positively, both in terms of volume exported and the price paid, according to the Peruvian consultancy Fresh Fruit. "However, as the year progressed, the serious problems that the climate caused to the entire agricultural industry this year began to be evident, and the favorable trend diluted."
At the end of September, the exported volume reached 636,500 tons worth US$1.024 billion, i.e. a 4% increase in volume and an 8% increase in value. "However, the increase in the export volume has been decreasing for several weeks and everything indicates we'll end the year with zero growth in volume and a 2% increase in value (thanks to the better price this year due to supply problems). That's still a good result in such a complex scenario, but it's very far from the projections that producers had at the beginning of the year."
International dynamics
Mexican avocados strongly dominated the US market. As a result, Peru lost important spaces that it had gained during the last campaign in this destination. In addition, the prices offered by US importers fell. In this context, Peru shipments to this destination fell by almost 39% and the average price fell by 5%.
Given the lack of space and the lower price, Peruvian producers chose to direct their production to other destinations that offered better prices and more placement opportunities, such as Europe.
"The situation is different in Europe. However, as the months have progressed, it has become increasingly difficult to sustain this growth. This generates a limited amount of stock throughout the region, especially in high-consumption countries such as Germany, Italy, and Spain. This situation has been aggravated because the internal production of this region has also decreased. In addition, other important producers outside Europe, such as Israel and South Africa, also had smaller or delayed productions. In this context, the volume of Peruvian shipments grew by more than 11%, while the average price increased by 15% over the previous year."
"Shipments to the Asian market are increasing this year. China continues to be this region's main destination and it continues to demonstrate its great potential as a market. Peru increased its avocado exports by more than 82% over the previous year. However, the drastic increase in volumes affected the average price, causing it to fall by 13%."
Source: freshfruit.pe
