Although it was initially thought that larger avocados would be most in demand, the reality of the Portuguese avocado season proved different, says Rocío Rodríguez, commercial director of Portuguese avocado exporter Global Avocados: “We all expected a season with a shortage of avocados and focused on the large sizes, due to their special scarcity. However, we quickly saw another reality; the market was calm and with great interest in medium and small sizes. Customers, being aware of the high price of large sizes, adapted to other sizes. We decided to start the season following the natural line of the product, without delays as usual, and we adapted quickly to the reality of the market. So far, the season has been successful for us. We see fairly important average prices, more marked even in small sizes, which was least expected.”
Due to the weather, the production and sizes of the Portuguese avocados were slightly affected, Rodríguez explains. “The high temperatures have affected our production, with our volume being reduced a little in relation to last season when it should go up, and the sizes have also reduced slightly. We believe that we can end the season with the same volumes as last campaign, around four million kilos. Water scarcity is not a problem yet and measures are already at place. Fortunately, we are still a long way from the big problems that Málaga region is experiencing.”
According to Rodríguez, the demand for avocados from Portugal is increasing, thanks to the proven quality of the produce: “After a lot of hard work and dedication, we have reaped our rewards in terms of demand for our product. Today, our avocado is considered to be of very high quality throughout Europe. As a result, the demand for our product is increasing to the point where we can’t meet all requests anymore. The more avocados we can have in stock, the more we would be able to sell.”
Looking at the future, Global Avocados has made some investments in order to grow the company, Rodríguez states. “We believe that it's time to move forward, so this year we have invested in ripening rooms and new packaging formats, all of which are receiving great acceptance among our customers. We’re ready to open our doors to importation and start to work with other origins. We’re now entering in national supermarkets and starting to sell our triggered and ready-to-eat avocados to other countries. Without a doubt, the ripening has been our biggest challenge, as it is a delicate and exhaustive process, and also fundamental to the growth of Global Avocados. Until now we’ve been getting great results and very good feedback from our clients.”
There are still a couple of weeks to go until the avocado season in Portugal comes to an end: “We believe that March and April will be months of emptiness in the market and will give a lot of benefit to those who still manage to have avocados by then. Although we also believe that since the last season, there are price limits that leave no room for the speculation of last year. Global Avocados will extend its season until the end of March or beginning of April,” Rodríguez concludes.
For more information:
Rocío Rodríguez
Global Avocados
Tel: +351 910 166 909
Email: rociorodriguez@globalavocados.pt
www.globalavocados.pt