This year will be an interesting one for South African avocados, says Grant Blanden, marketing director at Afrupro International. “The season was late to start due to adverse weather conditions and it is unlikely that consistent volumes will be achieved in April. This situation could well continue into May and cause a shortage at the end of the season, leaving the door wide open for countries such as Kenya to supply,” he says.
In terms of quality, first arrivals have been good, says Blanden, “but up until now produce has been air-freighted which does not necessarily give a good indication of quality”.
It may be too early to ascertain the definitive quality characteristics of this year’s South African avocado crop, but when it comes to sizing, fluctuating weather conditions have left their mark. “Large Fuerte will be scarce,” says Paul Devlin, sales manager at HL Hall. “The weather in the last six months has been very changeable and the fruit hasn’t grown at all.”
With first arrivals imminent at Melrow Salads, commercial manager Clive Bayston believes it is likely that fruit size will be up on last season. “We won’t see the huge amount of small fruit that we did last year,” he says.
Dealing mainly in Hass, Melrow Salads is expecting a particular shortage in organic avocados. “There has been some frost in South Africa and numbers are under pressure,” says Bayston. “There are only a certain amount of organic farms and organic crops do not produce the same yields. Like all importers we would like to see more crop but we will be able to top up quantities from South America - Peru is one source that is being developed with this in mind.”
The first few pallets of South African avocados from the Levubu production area arrived into the UK at the end of March and commercial quantities began during the first full week of April.
Malet Azoulay has been looking forward to the start of the season with what was expected to be an up year in production. Normally, says business unit director Alan Forrester, this would have delivered a seasonal volume of 10.5 to 11million cartons (as seen in 2002) of fruit.
“Flowering during September was excellent and presupposed a good, high quality crop. With greater than normal temperature variations during fruit set some fruit has been aborted. This, combined with the drought and high temperatures of more than 40°C earlier in the year, leaves crop predictions 10 per cent lower than 2003, at approximately 8.5m cartons.”
The result of these conditions has been less fruit on the trees. “Fruit is showing signs of sizing up one count larger than expected, with Fuerte peaking around sizes 14 and 16 and Hass delivering a peak around 18-20. Again these sizes are more in line with those seen in 2002,” he says.
“Less fruit on the tree and drier weather conditions has, to date, also led to a much cleaner appearance bold and bright, with minimal cosmetic issues. Currently export pack-outs are eight to 10 per cent higher than 2003. Varietal splits are running in a similar fashion to last year with green skins representing about 4.9m of the 8.5m cartons for export. Green skin varieties will work out at 70 per cent Fuerte, 20 per cent Pinkerton and 10 per cent Ryan, slightly down on last year.”
In coming years, Hass will play a more important part in the mix, with 85 per cent of all new nursery purchases being Hass, despite the overall planted areas remaining generally static, says Forrester. “The move to find a larger Hass continues with the full commercial release of Lambs Hass. This variety will peak in size at around the 12-14 count but still has limited volumes for export.
Katopé is continuing to extend the season of Hass with the development of farms and packhouse partnerships in Kwazulu Natal to the South of the more widely known growing regions. This will allow fruit to sold in the market until the end of October.”
Although Hass has long had the UK market firmly in its grip, Pinkerton is increasing its visibility this season. “It is becoming a more popular variety in Europe and South African growers have done a lot of work with it,” says Devlin. “There used to problems with it in terms of internal discolouration but now, in some markets, it is the preferred greenskin, and we are expecting good premiums this year.”
“A lot of research on Pinkerton is nutritional,” says Nic Reay, director of Halls Exports. “Originally it comes from the US and generally speaking it is a large fruit with an excellent seed to flesh ratio. It ripens fairly slowly and its eating quality is excellent. It has proved very popular in Germany and Italy, and a fair amount of Pinkerton was shipped to the UK last year and I believe it performed very well.”
Supermarkets are now beginning to take more green skin as opposed to just Hass, says Blanden. “This is a positive step and one that will reduce the pressure of dealing with a single variety.
Ripe&Ready programmes continue to add value to the avocado sector, particularly on the continent. “This is a progression of what has happened in the UK,” says Blanden. “Whatever happens in the UK tends to have a knock-on effect on the continent, and that is also true of accreditation programmes such as EurepGAP. The UK is a stabilising market and I would like to see 50 per cent of our Hass coming into the UK.”
A lot of work has been done to grow the Ripe&Ready market, says Devlin, because the internal quality of the fruit has to be just right. “In the past if there were internal problems with the fruit then it was only discovered by the end consumer but now the problem is picked up much earlier. In conjunction with this South African growers are becoming much more aware of the difficulties in the marketplace. Overall there is more focus on what supermarkets need and the supply chain is improving.”
“There have been many new developments in shipping,” says Reay, “especially with the introduction of alternatives to CA shipping and there is also a real drive to become EurepGAP certified. Tesco’s Nature’s Choice is another scheme a lot of growers have taken on board.”
Quality systems development has been a key area of focus for Katopé in the last two years, with almost all (95 per cent) of the production sites achieving HACCP and EurepGAP accreditation. A full programme of Nature’s Choice fruit will be achieved this year.
“Logistics have seen a move from CA to the use of 1-MCP. This, through the reduction of Ethylene, allows the fruit to arrive in peak condition while reducing the significant on-costs incurred in CA shipments,” says Forrester.
There was a time when avocados were considered to be exotic, but that is far from being the case now. “The South African Avocado Growers’ Association has done a huge amount towards promoting the awareness of avocados which we can see from the fact that Hall’’s sales are growing every year,” says Devlin, “however there is still room for growth.”
More avocados could be consumed and there is growth in Europe - northern Europe in particular so growers are looking to additional markets rather than putting all their eggs in the UK basket,” says Derek Donkin, general manager of SAAGA. “We continue to build on the campaigns of the last eight years by carrying out generic promotions in the UK, focusing on the message that avocados are a healthy product with slogans such as Fresh from the South African Sun.
South African volume covers the majority of Sainsbury’s summer season when avocado sales are at their highest. The retailer has maintained a consistent promotional strategy focusing on multi-buy activity, Buy One Get One Free and money off. Other activity has included free recipe booklets and holiday offers.
“For many people avocados are still an unknown quantity,” says Tristan Kitchener, Sainsbury’s avocado buyer, “but with levels of penetration slowly increasing this situation is being addressed, however, with a lot more education, consumption could easily be improved. Methods of education that have been used previously are in store barker cards, recipe leaflets, in-store tasting sessions, on pack recipe inspiration and promotional activity with a view of attracting new consumers.”
Sainsbury’s has stuck with the Hass variety as it consistently delivers a rich and nutty flavour with a smooth creamy texture, says Kitchener. “By focusing on achieving year round supply of Hass the consumer can be guaranteed 12-months of consistency.
“Improving the continuity and quality of avocados is vital if consumer confidence is to be maintained. Ripening methods have improved dramatically in the last few years offering the consumer a much more consistent and uniform product year round and technology will continue to evolve.”
Although this year’s output is likely to be 10 per cent down on last year, the future for the industry is bright. “We expect exports to grow by up to three per cent a year,” says Donkin, “and old orchards are being replaced with new cultivars. Other than the fresh market there is also a strong processing industry that includes oil for cosmetics. Guacamole is a strong product in the US, so there are other factors that contribute to the sector as a whole.”
WESTFALIA GAINS FAIRTRADE STATUS
Westfalia, South Africa’s leading avocado and mango grower, has announced that is has achieved Fairtrade status. “Certification came through in March, and we are now putting all the groundwork in place so that we can offer our customers Fairtrade avocados this coming season” says the company’s European marketing manager, Simon Curry. “Much of the way our farms operate comply with Fairtrade principles, so there was very little work to do to in order to attain accreditation. Our organisation is a foundation and is set up to benefit the resources and people of Southern Africa. Although a commercial concern, the principles of Fairtrade have always been in the forefront of our minds. For example, we have always funded schools and clinics and Fairtrade will enable our worker communities to build on this. Fairtrade is not a change of direction for us, it is more a recognition of what the company has achieved.”
Westfalia is launching its Fairtrade avocados with a number of UK retailers this summer and hopes to follow up with mangoes next year. “At this stage, Fairtrade avocados are destined primarily to the UK and Swiss markets which are the most receptive to Fairtrade produce,” says Curry, “although there is burgeoning interest in the Netherlands and France.”
For Westfalia the avocado season begins in a couple of weeks. “Westfalia has made good progress in our work to develop new sources to compliment the SA volumes, which, we believe will put us in a better position to serve our customer’s requirements this season.“
In order to develop closer ties with its European customers, Westfalia has recently opened a new office in the Netherlands. “We see a great opportunities in Europe and hope to increase our presence there. This will compliment the efforts of our UK office,” says Curry. The office, based in Maasland, is headed up by Paul Blokzijl, a respected figure in the Dutch fresh produce industry.
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