Avocado prices have been climbing steadily on wholesale markets as supplies from Peru and South Africa wind down.
One importer told freshinfo: “Volumes from South Africa and Peru have fallen away from their original estimates at the start of the season to a lower level. Quite a lot of fruit was shipped early in the season but as we have neared the end of the campaign, I think that growers have over-estimated what they had left. Part of that is due to some weather damage to the crop on the trees, but that is not the major reason - it is simply an over-estimation of volume.”
Derek Donkin of the South African Avocado Growers’ Association said: “Avocado supply to Europe is restricted in general. The main reason is that the initial Peruvian estimate of 48,000 tonnes of Hass to be exported to Europe has been reduced to 36,000t. Late-season export volumes from South Africa are a little lower than initially estimated, but because export volumes in the early part of the season were higher than expected, we should reach our initial export estimate of 40,000t, or 10 million 4kg cartons.”
UK importers and packers have been looking to sources far and wide to plug gaps. Wholesale markets are traditionally the destination of green-skinned avocados, while the supermarkets favour Hass. The importer said: “There are not a lot of options out there. Some people have brought in from Kenya and Australia, but this whole situation has happened very rapidly so it has been difficult to react in time.”
The temptation now is for Chile to start sendings to the UK early. “Chilean fruit usually starts to arrive in mainland Europe in the first week of September,” said the importer. “But we don’t generally bring it into the UK until the middle of September, to make sure the oil levels are right for this market.”
