Thousands of young avocado trees being planted in Northland and the Bay of Plenty are a reflection of renewed confidence in the future of the avocado industry.

Seedling nurseries are sold out of stock for the 2015-2016 season and there's increased demand for clonal varieties.

New Zealand Avocado CEO Jen Scoular says the climate is very different from the late-1980s to mid-1990s when avocado trees were planted in the Bay of Plenty and Whangarei mainly for capital gain.

'Now it appears new plantings are being made on the economic returns avocados can bring. 'People are realising the industry in New Zealand is still small and there is a lot more development to come.”

Record crop
Many of the plantings are in existing orchards, where growers are replacing trees or planting previously empty blocks. However, some very significant bare land properties are also being planted from scratch including at Tapora, on the eastern side of the Kaipara Harbour.

Part of the renewed confidence is due to the fact the New Zealand industry has just completed harvesting its largest crop ever – seven million trays including 4.5 million being exported.

The bonus for growers is despite a record crop returns have remained in the mid-teens, which is an improvement on the previous big crop three years ago when returns were disappointing.

Rationalisation among exporters, which has seen greater co-operation encouraged by the AIC between exporters, is an important factor in turning around the industry's fortunes.

So too has the partnership between former rivals Southern Produce and Primor Produce to form AVOCO and the co-operation between the three companies, which together export avocados to markets other than Australia under the AVANZA brand.

Global demand
Jen believes the industry is right to have confidence in its future. 'Globally, demand for avocados is growing 10 per cent year-on-year but global production is growing at just three per cent.”

There are untapped markets such as among the millions of people in India where 56 per cent of the population are vegetarian, who have not tasted avocado.

Geoff Thorpe of Riversun Nursery, Gisborne, says the resurgence of confidence in the avocado industry is heartening.

'In 2005 we funded the quarantine importation process for Dusa, Bounty and nine other varieties but initially demand was disappointing, with most orders only being for replacement trees.”

That was partly due to an industry-wide lack of understanding about how to establish clonal rootstock trees, along with some unrealistic expectations about their performance in the presence of extreme phytophthora pressure.

'Both the Dusa and Bounty clonal rootstocks are really starting to shine and demand is increasing strongly.”

Riversun has sold out of clonal stock for spring and booked out of deliveries for next autumn with the company currently taking orders for spring 2016.

Geoff credits the turnaround in industry confidence to strong leadership by Jen Scoular, AIC CEO Alvaro Vidiella, and research and development manager and the AIC board and exporters.

'Cooperation between exporters means we haven't experienced the boom and bust cycles of previous seasons and this is underpinning the development of new commercial-scale orchards.”