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The Chilean Hass avocado promotion campaign in the UK will take new steps forward this year in a bid to further reach out to consumers, backed up by a bumper export crop.

As part of the ongoing promotion of the fruit, the Chilean Hass Avocado Association (CHAA) is launching the UK's first Avocado Week, which is set to take place on 19-25 October 2009.

Thomasina MiersFronted by television chef Thomasina Miers, who will develop recipes, conduct demonstrations to food journalists and take part in radio interviews, the campaign will include in-store activity such as point-of-sale advertising, on-pack promotions and tasting events.

'Since 2005, we have focused on expanding the British market for Chilean Hass with excellent quality fruit and a strong marketing and PR effort,' said Adolfo Ochagavía, president of the CHAA. 'We will be supporting this year's plentiful crop by developing our successful campaign to promote Hass avocados to British consumers, with the goal of increasing volume and frequency of purchases amongst existing shoppers and encouraging new customers into the category.

'We will continue to tackle misconceptions about avocados, highlight their versatility and great taste, and this year will be addressing the problems presented to us by the economic downturn,' he added.

The season as a whole looks set to be a good one, with export volumes set to hit 185,000 tonnes, beating the previous record of 164,000 tonnes during the 2006/07 campaign.

Of these record volumes, the UK is expected to import a total of 6,000 tonnes of the fruit during the season, the CHAA said.

The potential export record will come from a crop that is expected to yield between 240,000 and 260,000 tonnes of avocados this year.

'We are expecting excellent volumes of Chilean Hass avocados for the 2009/10 season as the result of groves recovering from the effects of severe unseasonable frosts we experienced two years ago, and also due to a significant acreage f new plantings coming on stream this year,' Mr Ochagavía said.