Summer means avocado eating

Christmas is upon us, along with the wonderfully summery things that we New Zealanders associate with Christmas - picnics on the beach, barbecues and easy eating.

It's a busy time in avocados. Our export season is in full swing with exporters anticipating being about 70 per cent through our export crop by Christmas.

Supply into the New Zealand market flows on from export flows so there are lots of avocados available to enjoy over relaxed summer eating occasions.

The global rise in status of the avocado to near celebrity level has been terrific for our industry, and for foodies globally.

Avocados were once a staple part of your sandwich and your humble green salad, and have now been elevated to become the star ingredient in decadent salads such as Nadia Lim's avocado, watermelon, pomegranate and feta salad or her avocado, pumpkin, haloumi and quinoa salad.

And the repertoire expands significantly as avocados become de rigueur in your green breakfast smoothie and the trendiest desserts such as Sachie Nomura's avocado icecream, Nadia's avocado chocolate mousse, and our white chocolate and avocado tarts.

We love to spread the word about avocados, and so this year we have included some of our most favourite and 'Christmassy' recipes inside our Christmas card.

We hope the recipients will enjoy these recipes on Christmas Day and share their creations with us.

Sharing across social media is very much part of the activity we are undertaking in our export markets. Sachie Nomura, a Japanese chef in Auckland, has developed four new recipes for each of the Singapore and Thailand markets.

We are also currently having recipes developed by Japanese foodie bloggers to use on our newly created Japanese website and social media platforms. It's great to have recruited Anna Farquharson into the team as our market manager.

Anna is a digital marketing specialist and has significantly increased our capability in this area. She and Jodi, our communications manager, work very well together across marketing and communications, and especially across social media platforms.

Brad and I spent a few very fruitful days in Auckland last week attending the Biosecurity Forum at which I presented the way in which we manage biosecurity for the industry.

The forum strongly supported the role of the New Zealand public in biosecurity and the message was clear that 4.7 million people in New Zealand have the ability to play an active role in biosecurity by being aware of pests, and the need to protect our environment, our lifestyle and our primary industries.

In the office we have opened the Christmas season with a competition for the best Christmas decorated office.

We have in the past been a little slack on the Christmas season, but Jodi, Anna and Marisa, our research manager, have set the bar high with fantastically creative decorations.

I'm very much looking forward to some downtime over Christmas - especially to be able to have a couple of weeks without needing to pack and unpack a suitcase! The team has had a great year - and I think we will all enjoy a few weeks' rest and relaxation.

We would like to wish all readers a safe and fun holiday season and say from NZ Avocado: "Avo Merry Christmas!"