Agricom is on course to ship 3m cartons of avocados this season, up from 2.6m cartons in 2007/08. The country’s top-ranked avocado exporter said the increase is due to new plantings coming into production.

Weighing in at 110,000 tonnes, Chile’s export crop is around 10 per cent smaller than last season, mostly as a result of residual damage caused by last August’s cold snap.

“The 2007 freeze not only damaged last year’s harvest, but also froze buds on the trees that were setting up to produce this year’s crop,” said Diego Vicente, head of US-bound avocado exports at Agricom.

Adolfo Ochagavía, president of Chile’s Hass Avocado Committee, said below-average rainfall in some producing areas meant there would be an abundance of smaller sizes.

Shipments to North America are expected to get under way in the last week of July, with exports to the European Union starting in mid-September. Mr Vicente said the forecast for the US were good at this stage.

“We’re told that California’s crop will be down 15-20 per cent so we’re hopeful that our fruit will receive top prices in the US,” he said.

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