Volumes may be down but avocado growers are unlikely to receive returns much better than last year's low payments, believes Hugh Moore of Kauri Pak.

'The exchange rate is hurting exporters and the prices gained in the markets are not high. In Japan there is strong competition from Mexican fruit and in the US the price has dropped from around $41 to $ 48 down to $20 to $25 per carton.

By the time the costs of shipping and the impact of the exchange rate is taken into account there's very little left for growers.”

Hugh says the industry can't rely on the Australian market this season as supermarkets are pushing a 'Buy Australian” campaign. Western Australian growers have indicated they have enough fruit to supply the domestic market even through the summer which is when New Zealand fruit usually takes over. 'It remains to be seen if they can really do what they say because Western Australia has a smaller volume of fruit and smaller fruit size this season.”

The 2012 season in New Zealand was slow to start, particularly in the Bay of Plenty with picking not beginning until around the third week in September. It's an ‘off-year' with trees producing smaller volumes but there will be enough fruit to keep markets supplied until January or February next year.

The first avocados of the season was harvested in the Far North but fruit destined for Japan is being sent in containers south by road to Auckland, then by train to the Port of Tauranga for shipment to Japan.

Last season some growers supplying smaller exporters who do not operate a pool system received little or no return for their fruit when the Australian market collapsed through over-supply.

Hugh says the industry has learned some lessons from that painful experience but he believes growers need to ask the hard questions and require exporters to keep them informed of the true market situation. 'Exporters are eternal optimists and they don't like to deliver bad news, but growers need to know what's going on.”
The local market started strongly as was expected in a year of short supply and some growers may decide not to export, selling all their fruit locally.

Kauri Pak near Katikati began packing fruit in the last week of September, for the Team Avocado brands. Four years ago the packhouse was one of the first in the industry to install a water blasting cleaning system for the fruit before packing and having fruit cleaned in this way has now become a requirement in many countries avocado are exported to.

Washed and dried, the fruit are delivered to a team of graders who remove any which are not up to standard, before they go to the packers. Brand stickers are applied and the boxed fruit are stacked onto pallets ready for strapping and delivery to the coolstore. Sample boxes are checked to ensure they meet all quality and grade standards.