Careful management from orchard, to post harvest, to export of New Zealand’s biggest-ever avocado harvest this season should ensure growers enjoy its financial rewards, says Alistair Young of AVOCO.

Alistair Young of AVOCO.

“My biggest message to growers is: keep your orchard compliant for all markets and stick to your flow plan. You have six months to harvest fruit and the tree is the best cool store growers have for their fruit.”

AVOCO, a joint entity between Bay of Plenty-based Southern Produce and Auckland-based Primor Produce, is predicting the 2014-2015 season to be NZ’s largest export crop ever – in excess of five million trays.

Alistair says growers whose fruit is not compliant with all markets may find picking is delayed as post-harvest operators source fruit that meets the market they are packing for.

“If growers are unsure what they need to do to access all markets, they should talk to their post-harvest company or consultant.”

Complex
The coming harvest is also shaping up to be the most complex ever from a logistical point of view, says Alistair.

“Through AVANZA we’ll be shipping fruit to the US, Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia all at the same time, that’s why co-ordination with growers is vital to ensure we have the fruit to meet all those markets.”

Most of the fruit will be exported from Tauranga and Auckland, and Alistair expects pack houses to be operating at near full capacity from the season’s start in August.

Given the expected record crop, there will be significant local market fruit. In order to maintain prices and quality, this market will also need careful control.

Australia will remain the major market for New Zealand fruit, even though growers there are predicting a strong crop of good-sized fruit. However, Alistair says volumes aren’t expected to be any bigger than they were two years ago.

“There are opportunities for New Zealand to ‘farm’ the Australian market carefully to produce a good result for growers, without over-cooking it.”

Monitoring
The Avocado Exporters Council and the Avocado Industry Council will be closely monitoring the Australian market and will send out communications to exporters and pack houses if it appears too much fruit is flowing into to that market at any one time.

“That’s the only control the industry has, but the industry is much more co-ordinated now than it was. Around 80 to 85 per cent of the crop is in the hands of three exporters and 70 per cent sits with just two,” says Alistair.

“This means exporters can respond quickly to changes in the markets and most are working together in markets outside of Australia through AVANZA. We are all talking to each other, which is excellent – even if we don’t always agree.”

Alistair says growers will now be hoping for kind weather during the months ahead. Most had a lucky escape from the severe storm that struck the North Island in mid-June.

“We have heard isolated reports of some fruit loss and some trees down, but on the whole I think we were lucky the storm came in from nor-east and wasn’t a direct easterly, which could have been much worse.”