Strong international demand helped lift Colombia’s avocado exports to 18,201 tonnes in 2016, a 228 per cent increase on the previous year, when shipments totalled 5,543 tonnes.
The Netherlands was the biggest market, taking 41.6 per cent of the export total, followed by the UK, Spain and France.
Access to the US market, meanwhile, is expected to be granted within the next few months. Last October, the USDA-APHIS published a proposal to allow imports of Colombian Hass avocados for the first time.
But the procedure was delayed after the agency admitted that it had overstated the perceived threat presented by a pest called the pink hibiscus mealybug, and the comment period extended to 20 March.
Colombia has two main cropping periods, one between September and November and the other from February to April, giving exporters a relatively clear window between the end of the Peruvian deal and the start of the Chilean season.
