Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

High avocado prices predicted to drop with big crop

John Cousins
By John Cousins
Senior reporter, Bay of Plenty Times·NZ Herald·
4 Apr, 2018 12:00 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Trevelyan's avocado manager Daniel Birnie and a member of the avocado services team Danni van der Heijden inside the company's new avocado tree nursery at Te Puke. Photo/Andrew Warner

Trevelyan's avocado manager Daniel Birnie and a member of the avocado services team Danni van der Heijden inside the company's new avocado tree nursery at Te Puke. Photo/Andrew Warner

A return to more affordable avocados has been forecast for next season after avocados hit a record end-of-season price of $4 per fruit in some Tauranga supermarkets.

The 2017-18 season was influenced by avocado trees producing very poor crops in many Bay orchards, with Te Puke grower Ron Bailey saying his production fell to 50 tonnes - 250 tonnes less than his bumper crop the previous year.

''That was typical of a lot of growers.''

Bailey said the cyclic seasonal variations in crop volumes was unfortunately what avocado trees did.

Read more: Why South Korea has embraced the avocado

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

However, things were looking much better for the harvest due to commence in August, with national production forecasts of up to 3.5 million trays for the season - 1.3 million trays more than this season.

''Volumes are looking good.''

Bailey, a former Avocado Growers Association chairman, said New Zealand consumers would get cheaper fruit because of the bigger crop.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

''In the flush of the season, avocados will be realistically priced again.''

Alistair Young, the marketing director of the industry's leading export supply group, AVOCO, said the industry was better off when a strong crop produced moderate returns because the returns per hectare were much higher.

Although the low supply of fruit this season had produced higher prices, the industry was still a long way down in value.

''Quite a few growers had very small crops, and they missed out on the very high returns.''

Trevelyan's avocado manager Daniel Birnie said Bay avocado growers were in the strongest position the industry had ever seen, with record end-of-season prices for fruit and the opening up of China to exporters for the 2018-19 season.

He said Trevelyan's new avocado nursery in No. 1 Rd was going well, with a two-year waiting list for trees.

''That's another sign of the strength of our industry at the moment.''

He said Trevelyan's had just finished packing the 2017 season's crop. The 170,000 trays exported and 130,000 trays for the local market represented about 10 per cent of the industry's volume.

Low crop volumes and high consumer demand resulted in record prices of up to $4 per fruit this season, he said.

''The returns have been the best we've ever seen in the industry, and consumer demand is going through the roof.''

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Birnie said the trend that people were prepared to pay more for avocados boded well for growers and the industry.

Young said the industry's future looked very positive, with New Zealand unable to satisfy the demand from Australia and Asia for a number of previous seasons.

''Australia is pre-ordering fruit for the coming season. The industry is in a really good position... we can't supply enough fruit or enough trees.''

''China will exacerbate the problem - it's a good problem to have.''

Bailey said the higher prices from this season's poor crop yield came nowhere near compensating growers.

Looking at the causes of the cyclic cropping of avocado trees, he said pruning was looked at as being part of the solution, but plenty of growers who pruned did not have good crops this season.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

''They are scratching their heads.''

He said avocado trees had been taken out of Mexican rainforests and grown in New Zealand orchards. Genetically, it was a very ancient tree, and its roots were not very efficient.

''We are dealing with a difficult crop. We have been growing them for 40 years, and maybe we will need another 40 years to understand them.''

Trevelyan's avocado tree nursery
- Established August 2016
- Raises around 3500 trees from seed each year
- Main source of employment for four staff

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

04 Jul 02:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

Bay of Plenty Times

'A f****** ugly mess': Gang boss' text after fatal hotbox attack on mate of 20 years

04 Jul 12:24 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

04 Jul 02:00 AM

Peter was trapped under a tractor for hours on his Mangakino farm.

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

Farmer's harrowing hours crushed beneath tractor

'A f****** ugly mess': Gang boss' text after fatal hotbox attack on mate of 20 years

'A f****** ugly mess': Gang boss' text after fatal hotbox attack on mate of 20 years

04 Jul 12:24 AM
Traffic concerns grow as Tauriko roading developments advance

Traffic concerns grow as Tauriko roading developments advance

03 Jul 11:48 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP