Dom Rep avocado season underway

The Dominican Republic has started with their avocado season this month. At this moment avocado ranks third in American exports. In total the Dominican Republic has 21.934 hectares of avocado produce. There are 19 different varieties, for example Hass avocado which occurs all year or Popenoe harvested from May to July. The main export variety is Semil 34, which is harvested from October till February. According Cesar Perez from Fruvexco, a small Dominican exporter, the tropical weather and the soil make the avocados look good and give the produce a unique taste.

The production areas of avocado around the country are Cambita (San Cristobal), San José de Ocoa (Calimete in Elias Piña), Arroyo (Pedernales), Altamira (Puerto Plata) and Villa Trina (Espaillat province). More and more avocado farms receive certifications like Global Gap, which makes it possible for them to export their produce to different destinations around the world.

Cesar explains that exporters benefit from the eight international airports in the Dominican Republic. In this way it is possible to have the products at destination within 15 hours, in any part of the world. Furthermore, they also use sea freight to ship their products to certain harbour destinations. It takes only three days to Florida (US), nine days to ship products to the port of Rotterdam and the UK and ten days to ship to Canada.

The main export destinations for avocado are US, UK, Spain, Canada, France and Germany. However, since the beginning of the year there has been a ban on Dominican products to the US. After they detected the presence of the Mediterranean fruit fly, several crops aren’t allowed to enter the US market any more. According to Cesar it has a huge impact on all Dominican exporters. Lots of discussions and consultations are going on between the Dominicans and different American institutions, trying to get permission to export the avocado production from the south west and northern part of the island.

Until that’s arranged exporters are looking for new markets or at least sending more volumes to the existing market if possible. Exporters are sending to the Netherlands, London, Manchester, Paris, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Milan and Canada. However, there is too much local production that can’t go anywhere, meaning the growers/exporters are suffering big losses.

For more information:
Cesar Perez
FRUVEXCO - Caribbean Trading Produce
Tel: +1809 376 1508
Skype: cesardominico