The World Avocado Congress 2003 held in Malaga recently called for the promotion of avocados on a worldwide basis. Along with variety development and seasonal concerns, growers and exporters at the event addressed the lack of awareness that surrounds this ancient fruit. Although consumption figures reveal an upward trend, there is plenty of room for improvement.

“The world needs an organisation to implement generic advertising and increase exposure and demand for avocados,” says StePac's tropical and subtropical produce manager Asaf Shachnai. “Although sales impetus has been boosted by Israel's Agrexco, and then the South African Avocado Growers' Association, it can be hard for exporters, no matter how big they are, to increase consumption by themselves ñ a global campaign would have obvious benefits to all.”

Promotions aside, there are other ways to increase consumption and in recent years there has been little short of a revolution in the way that avocados are packed and stored. Israel-based StePac has had a major part to play in this with its Xtend® product range that revolves around modified atmosphere (MA) and modified humidity packaging.

The company's ripening solutions have already been used across the globe and are employed for a variety of fruit, including Sainsbury's bananas. It has also been working with Greencell on the global sourcing of avocados, providing it with the Xtend® avocado-ripening bag.

“MA packaging is a continually developing process,” says Shachnai, “and we had to go through significant trial processes before the bag system became fully commercial. We take the MA packaging and manipulate it to enable the fruit to ripen in the bag ñ it's a unique advantage and to my knowledge we are the only company in the world to offer this process in this way.”

In a sophisticated process that involves the company working with all parts of the chain ñ from grower and exporter through to the retailer and ultimately the end consumer ñ StePac's Xtend® Integrated Post Harvest System is designed to ensure that produce arrives at optimum freshness so maintaining excellent taste. “This is particularly advantageous to sources such as South Africa and South America because despite the long journey time, produce still arrives in excellent condition,” he says. “This system also means that the produce has better internal and external qualities and means there is almost no waste. Because MA retards the development of decay agents in the avocados, fruit can be ripened before it gets rotten,” he says, which is particularly advantageous since decay starts as the ripening process begins. Being able to control the ripening process then, is a real benefit.

Waitrose has been taking advantage of this technology for the last 14-18 months, says Shachnai, and the project was initially developed with former Greencell operational manager Ali Khas, now manager of consultancy, AK Produce based in Spalding. “Khas is a highly innovative person who assisted us in realising the demands of the retailers in terms of evaluation, continuity and uniformity,” says Shachnai. “There are still elements of the UK market which are not as well developed but from a retailer point of view fruit has to be ripe and ready to eat and I think we are the only people to provide the service this way. We don't deal as much with the open market because it doesn't have the same requirements.”

While the UK market is a stringent one in terms of produce quality, Shachnai also believes it is unique when it comes to the use of ripening and presenting ripe-and-ready-to-eat fruit into the retail market itself, but he says, it is a trend which is starting to catch on elsewhere. “You can see that in the US, particularly on the East Coast consumer are increasingly moving towards ripe-and-ready-to-eat fruit ñ in wealthy areas people want to be able to buy fruit and to eat it immediately, but in continental markets they still sell it rock-hard,” he says.

Such packaging innovations have obvious implications for suppliers across the world, especially up-and-coming sources int he UK such as Chile that face logistical challenges.

Chile has seen a substantial growth in avocado exports with sendings more than tripling since the mid 1990s, but produce takes three weeks to get to Europe by boat ñ which is significantly longer than from Mexico, a major competitor.

StePac also offers storage bags that allow fruit to be kept without ripening. “Fruit can keep commercially for 60 days in the storage bags and for 40 days in the ripening bags,” says Shachnai. “This has the effect of extending the window to cover seasonal gaps. What we're actually doing is replacing the need for CA shipment, otherwise the only way to keep the fruit is in these containers. And the other advantage is allowing the fruit to be controlled from the producer to the customer. “

Although a significant step forward for the avocado industry in terms of ripening and storage, not all fruit responds in equal measure. Israel's biggest crop, for example, is the green-skinned Ettinger that proves somewhat stubborn in attempts to increase its shelf-life. “Ettinger has a short shelf life anyway and a short picking period,” Shachnai explains. “If it's not picked at the start of December then it just falls off the tree. We want to be able to extend its life by 40 days and by doing this we will extend the sales and marketing period by almost a month which gives us the advantage of spreading the crop further and avoiding the kind of price crisis which comes about by submitting high volumes of produce. By doing this we will be able to even out the market and make more Etttinger available during the Christmas period which is when it is usually at its highest price,” he says.

The forecast for Israeli avocados, although estimated at 10-15 per cent more than last year is still tight due to the number of hot days following on from an extremely wet winter. Israeli handler Agrexco started sendings of Ettinger to wholesale markets in late September. Mid-November will see Fuerte and Hass with 95 per cent of the latter going to the multiples whose preference is for black skinned fruit. The catering sector takes the bulk of the green skinned Fuerte and the season will end with varieties such as Pinkerton, Ardith and Nabal.

All Agrexco's avocados are sea-freighted into Marseilles then trucked through Europe ñ a week from picking to becoming available for purchase.

Having successfully introduced Ettinger, Fuerte and Hass, Agrexco focuses heavily on the technical side of production: “All avocado packhouses are Ecofresh, EurepGAP and BRC certified, a fact that gives us a competitive edge within the marketplace,” explains Eitan Zvi, product manager. “We are developing new plantations mainly in the north with the aim of improving our systems eventually to pick 45 tonnes per hectare. The avocado tree only starts bearing fruit five years after planting, providing 15 tonnes a hectare. After seven to eight years this increases to 30t. We are now experimenting with netting our orchards, not only will this help control the temperature, but it will also allow us to control the height of the trees which in turn should give a better yield.”

Agrexco was originally responsible for introducing the hitherto unknown avocado into the UK in the 1950s and since then, consumption has continued to rise, fuelled by increased exposure and the many developments in packaging and ripe-and-ready. Despite this, Shachnai remains modest in the part StePac has had to play. “I don't think we are affecting the increase in consumption,” he says, “but we are increasing confidence in the produce. Consumers know they are buying a good product, and then they will buy it again. Whether it is Xtend® bags or loose fruit ñ most of it arrives in our system.”

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