Avocado demand skyrockets on back of health benefits

WITH lucrative Asian markets looming and big votes of confidence from nutritional research, the avocado farmgate price boom that has come on the back of skyrocketing consumer demand looks very secure.

Wholesale avocado prices this season have lingered between $30 and $40 per 5.5 kilogram carton compared to the $15 to $20 growers were receiving just four years ago which barely hit the cost of production.

It’s a revolution that has seen growers go from burying fruit they couldn’t get to a feedlot to buying more land to plant trees and investing in cutting-edge technology and infrastructure.

The turnaround has come on the back of significant health benefits, the growth in processor usage of the fruit, increasing export opportunities and changing consumer attitudes.

One of the big changes, says Southern Queensland grower Daryl Boardman, is consumers understanding a mark on a piece of fruit is not necessarily a bad thing.

“That that has provided a market for fruit which once would have been fed to cattle,” he said.

Industry leaders say demand is currently outstripping supply by at least 100 per cent and, with free trade agreements opening doors in the likes of China, Japan and Korea, growers are gearing up to significantly lift their production.

Chief Executive Officer of leading grower-owned marketing company The Avolution, Antony Allen, said Asia was massive in the sense the market was near untapped.

“Investment by the Californian industry saw avocados introduced to Japanese cuisine via sushi and in Singapore they are used in shakes but there is still enormous potential - the surface has barely been scratched,” he said.

Avocado growers are confident importing deals will be brokered with these three countries within five years and say they will target the high end of the market.

The Avolution already sends between 7 and 10 per cent of its product to Singapore, a market it describes as small but valuable.

“Mexicans, Chileans and Peruvians have been making some moves on the market but Australia has so many advantages,” Mr Allen said.

“They are sending by ship, which is generally a three week journey. We’ll be there much faster which will provide a freshness that further leverages on our high quality.”

About 100 growers supply The Avolution and Mr Allen said most were already preparing for the Asian potential by planting more trees, buying more land and investing in infrastructure.

“The good part is that export is geared to small fruit which fits in perfectly with our domestic market which wants the larger fruit so it provides a full spectrum for a farmer’s crop,” Mr Allen said.

In the past 20 years, Australia’s avocado production has increased from 18,000 tonnes per annum to the near 68,500t crop of 2015.

The avocado, referred to in nutrition publications as ‘the world’s healthiest food’, has now overtaken the banana as the leading fresh produce drawcard in supermarkets.

This month, the Australian industry highlighted the findings from seven different university studies across the United States, which separately linked consumption of the green-skinned  

food to improved brainpower, blood pressure, blood sugar, diet adherence and cardiovascular health.

The Tufts University study, for example, found that avocado consumption increases neural lutein, thus improving cognitive function.

Mr Allen said research was continuously supporting with science what millions of Aussies had already figured out and the release of these findings would further underpin the avocado’s massive consumer appeal and continue to propel the industry’s rapid growth.