Halls continues to scale up its supply of Brazilian Hass avocados after launching the programme in 2017.
Through its partnership with ACMH International and local producers Campo de Ouro and Grupo Bonella, Halls has 900ha of fully accredited Hass avocado orchards that is says offer the flexibility of an alternative supply of fruit for its extensive customer base across Europe and China during the European summer supply window.
“As a natural avocado origin, particular regions within Brazil provide a combination of favourable climate for production with suitable site elevation, soil, temperature and rainfall parameters, allowing for sustainable, high yielding avocado production,” Halls said.
“Our orchards are managed through progressive farming techniques paying particular attention to fruit maturity levels to ensure the ideal harvest window and in turn delivering robust shelf-life, an ideal eating quality fruit, and significantly reduced food waste.”
The fruit can be packed and shipped to European markets in just 15 days, facilitated by efficient packing facilities, good road infrastructure, effective shipping ports and reliable weekly shipping schedules to Europe, Halls continued.
The project is the result of a collaborative partnership between Stephane Hellin, founder of ACMH International, that was established in 2017. Having identified the opportunity to export high quality Hass avocados out of Brazil, the two companies set about finding long-term, sustainable grower partners with aligned values and a pioneering spirit to bring the project to life.
These turned out to be Ronaldo Morini Ferreira and his daughter Ana Krishna, owners of Campo de Ouro Farm in the Piraju region of São Paulo state, and José Alcides Bonella, and his son Fernando who farm in the later production region of Trȇs Corações within the state of Minas Gerais.
“We are excited to partner with a family company whose deep heritage is grounded in farming, but who today possess global avocado marketing expertise, and an international footprint which now extends beyond Europe into exciting markets which are now opening up, such as China,” Hellin said.
“The technical extension services provided to our farms and the values of developing authentic long-term relationships are what forms the basis of our partnership.”
Halls’ managing director Paul Devlin said the partnership builds on the company’s existing alternative supply origin which it has been cultivating since 2017 in order to supplement its strategic objective of supplying the best quality avocados all year round from sustainable sources.
Both Halls and its Brazilian grower partners, believe it is imperative that fruit from this origin is sourced responsibly from sustainable production practices – a fact reflected in the accreditations the farms have achieved.
“The combination of sustainable farming philosophy and strong values-based businesses ensure the best quality fruit from Brazil,” Halls said.
