the Avocado may be a relative newcomer to the UK market, but it is far from being in its infancy when it comes to innovation.
Often, the concept of innovation is driven by necessity - a mature market rushing headlong into a commodity position will clutch at innovation in a bid to add value, and profit, back into its offer.
However, the avocado market is far from mature, yet that has not stopped the sector from innovating and adapting its offer.
In recent years we have seen baby avocados, edible-skin avocados, ripe & ready fruit and even attempts to market seedless avocados, or cocktail avocados. On top of this, producers are innovating when it comes to things like production techniques and developing new technologies to allow them to ensure the fruit reaching the consumer is of the highest quality.
Some are still in the early days, while others are unlikely to prove a success, but the market is certainly not sitting still.
Westfalia is one avocado company taking the bull by the horns and has a dedicated operation looking at innovation and improvement - Westfalia Technological Services.
Simon Curry, UK marketing manager, says: “Our research and development body is one of the foremost avocado research bodies in the world and is focussed on R&D with a commercial application.”
As well as looking into the development of new cultivars and root-stock breeding, production is a key area for innovation, says Curry. “We’re looking to continually improve production and quality of fruit with fewer chemical inputs, which in turn results in a cleaner product and safer environment.”
But it is not all focussed on production, and Curry says a key issue when it comes to innovation is how it relates to the end market: “Many of our recent innovations are focussed on convenience and ease to eat for the consumer.”
Ripe & ready plays a key part in this, and the avocado sector has devoted a great deal of energy on this issue.
Clare Selvey, category manager at importer Minor, Weir & Willis, says convenience in avocados is key: “Recent developments in the market have focussed on segmenting the market into different consumer needs groups and finding solutions for all.
“For the money-rich, time-poor consumer, a rapidly growing market, there are various ripe & ready to eat formats which afford an immediate meal solution. An increasingly popular way of eating avocados is as a replacement to sandwiches and salads at lunchtime, so there have also been developments of single-serving ready to eat packs with spoons and a sachet of dressing.”
Having pre-ripened fruit on a retailer’s shelves has other advantages as well, says Selvey: “It takes away the guess-work for those consumers who do not feel confident enough to buy hard fruit and ripen it themselves at home.”
However, ripening fruit is not an exact science, and this can cause difficulties, says Westfalia’s Curry, and the issue is something WTS is working on. “One of the main problems with most ripe & ready operations is the wide range in which the fruit ripens.
“Compressing the band will make the process much more manageable. Westfalia has experimented with the use of Smartfresh technology to retard the ripening process (as an alternative to controlled atmosphere), and there are indications that modifying the ripening techniques slightly will narrow the ripening band,” Curry says.
The company is now conducting trials to confirm its observations, and the research is currently focused on developing protocols to reduce the time taken between the first fruit ripening and the last in a particular consignment, he adds.
Smartfresh is something that has had a major impact on the sector, says Frans Kruger, post-harvest physiologist with the Institute of Tropical and Sub-Tropical Crops. “It is allowing producers to hold on to fruit to ride out the price dips in the market - in many cases it is making a difference between profit and loss.”
However, the use of Smartfresh means that it takes the fruit longer to ripen and Dr Kruger and his team have been looking at methods to improve the ripening process.
“The exporters need to trigger the fruit so that they can deliver avocados that will ripen easier at the pre-packers. That basically entails breaking the cold chain and holding the fruit at 20°C for 24 hours before putting them back into the holding chambers and sending them on.”
After a series of trials using different temperatures and timings, Dr Kruger and his team decided that 20°C for 24 hours has proved to be optimum, providing the most consistent results.
Ripe & ready is not the only innovation the market has seen however, and the avocado category has seen significant development when it comes to segmentation in recent years.
Baby avocados is one product that is growing in popularity in some areas says Selvey: “Value bags, containing four to six baby avocados have been another development. These are firmly targeted at the price-conscious, especially families and are also ideal when entertaining.”
Marks & Spencer recently announced the launch of the Midnight avocado - a fruit with an edible skin, which, in theory, makes it as convenient to snack on as an apple or peach.
However volumes remain small, and Curry has doubts the fruit will prove that popular at the moment. “Edible skin avocados, from the Chilean variety Negra del la Cruz, have a thin skin which, although edible is very bitter.
“A genuine edible skin variety is yet to be commercially available, although some of the cultivars under development at WTS show promise for the future.”
Stoneless avocados were also recently highlighted by Sainsbury’s, although the fruit has existed in the UK market for some time, branded as cocktail avocados by Waitrose. Unfortunately, the fruit is a by-product of the production process and difficult to control. Early research suggests the fruit is created by stress on the tree, with some producers describing the fruit as an “abortion of nature”.
Curry says: “Gherkins, as we call them, are non-pollinated, seedless avocados and the production is unpredictable and unreliable.”
Other producers add the taste is not great and the fruit is also difficult to ripen.
Quality is one of the biggest issues in all sectors, and the avocado market is no different. As a result the industry is investing in new methods and technology to try and improve quality for consumers.
Selvey says: “According to consumer research improved and consistent quality is paramount to consumers of avocados. This has triggered increased non-destructive testing to gauge ripeness, size, weight etc, and near infra-red technology to reduce the occurrence of discoloured flesh on slicing open the fruit.”
Curry says Westfalia are also looking into the issue: “Non-destructive testing for ripeness plays a critical role, but while we have tested near infrared technology, this has yet to be proved as a reliable indicator for avocados.”
Marketing is also an area where innovation can be employed to boost avocado consumption, and Selvey and her team are keen to develop new, interesting and innovative recipes to promote avocados as an ingredient. “There’s plenty more inspiration available now for what to do with avocados, including using them in cooked dishes, pasta, cakes and smoothies.
“Another simple but effective development recently has been the promotion of avocados as an ideal weaning food for babies. The pureed flesh, mixed with banana puree, is an excellent source of lots of essential vitamins and minerals and also a great source of energy,” she adds.
Overall, the market might be young, but its certainly not sitting still, and in the years ahead it looks set to see some considerable, and exciting, change.
No comments yet