Jens Pick: Big crowds at Avocado Food and Wine Festival

Pure NZ avocado oil was popular at Pole to Pole Fresh Limited's site at the Avocado Food and Wine Festival.

What more can one ask for on a Saturday in the Bay but clear blue skies, umbrellas to sit under, great music and a myriad of stalls offering delicious treats like mussel fritters, avocado burgers and more. Oh and a great selection of wine and craft beers.

I was one of more than 3000 people enjoying the Katikati Avocado Food and Wine Festival on January 13. NZ Avocado supported this event with our groovy new umbrellas, two different ones sharing amazing avocado dishes and two offering an avocado tree canopy.

Our branded beanbags were dotted around too, allowing those indulging to relax close to the ground, as the music played around them.

The audience was very mixed with tourists, locals and avocado growers. I enjoyed chatting to the growers I knew, and to the stallholders from our industry — Lynnaire and Monique from Seeka and Todd and Julia from Pole to Pole Fresh Limited.

It was impressive to see a real increase in numbers at the event, the organisers have done a great job lifting the profile and visibility of this great local event.

Music was varied with Kokomo and The Flying Kiwis and even at 1pm, had folks up and dancing — perhaps helped by the offerings of wine and beer, but all part of the enjoyment of the afternoon.

We are coming to the end of the season now. It has been a low volume season for the industry, sadly our biggest challenge to get more consistent crops remains our biggest challenge, even with some exciting research being undertaken.

We are very happy demand for avocados in New Zealand continues to build strongly, and we are working on growing more avocados to meet this demand. Westpac were also a supporter of the Katikati Avocado Food & Wine Festival and I love that as a bank they also want to connect with avocados.

They have a great new word, avo-cardio — "the money you spend on (an avocado) brunch instead of new active wear".