Avo plan to double sales off to good start

Growers attend a NZ Avocado information portal needs analysis workshop in Whangarei last week. Photo / NZ Avocado

Plans to double sales of avocados by 2023 is off to a roaring start with a record 7.1 million trays worth $135 million harvested last season.

The Bay of Plenty is the main avocado-growing area, producing 2.8 million export trays last season, with Northland - 962,000 export trays for Whangarei-Mangawhai and 589,000 trays for the Far North - the next highest producing region.

NZ Avocado chief executive Jen Scoular says the goal is to achieve $280 million worth of sales by 2023 through a five-year Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) programme with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).

"Confidence is riding high, and the industry is on track to achieve the PGP objectives and significantly boost avocado sales and productivity in less than 10 years," she said.

NZ Avocado's just released annual report is proving collaboration and increased investment is already contributing to the impressive results and is prompting industry members to communicate and collaborate like never before, with work now under way to create the industry's first information portal.

"The idea is to provide a central online hub of information accessible to growers, orchard contractors, post-harvest operators, marketers and exporters. As an industry, we want to share data and knowledge and provide people in the avocado industry access to insights that will help improve decision-making and orchard productivity," Ms Scoular said.

Along with NZ Avocado communications manager Midge Munro and a consultant, she met growers in Whangarei and the Far North last week to discuss specifications for the information portal. More workshops will be held in the Bay of Plenty and with other avocado industry groups.

New Zealand's avocado export markets are continuing to grow with avocados increasing in consumer popularity.

Co-operation among exporters delivered excellent results in the Australian market in particular last season, with 3.2 million trays of New Zealand avocados sold at stronger-than-forecast values despite a huge Australian-grown crop also being available.

Another 1.2 million trays were sold into new and developing markets.

Avocado Exporters' Council chairman Andrew Darling said that after some tough years the industry was maturing and working together closer.

"We are recognising collectively the potential value of our industry and working on a common industry strategy to achieve greater growth," he said.

"As exporters we are competitive but collaborate on planning and volume forecasting. The Australian market remains crucial to New Zealand and planning our supply into Australia is a critical requirement which affects us all.

"We did this very well in 2014-15 which is reflected in the strong returns for growers. Across Asia, we leveraged the generic collateral for 'Premium Avocados from New Zealand' which we co-brand with our individual in-market brands," Mr Darling said.

"The 2014-15 result shows we are growing stronger as an industry. We are able to promote ourselves to create demand, and supply a high-quality product to meet that demand."