South Africa is enjoying a better than expected export season for its avocados, as market and weather factors combine to favourable effect.
Don Westcott, chairman of the South African Avocado Growers Association (SAAGA), said: “The percentage of the crop packing out to export standards from the packhouses is better than expected. We were forecasting nine million 4kg tray equivalents and we are already at 10m and expect the season to close at 11m. It has definitely been a good season.”
Paul Devlin, a director of importer HL Hall (International) in the UK, told freshinfo that the market is performing well too. He said: “We’ve had a good season so far. We started in April with green-skinned fruit and moved into Hass in June. The market was very undersupplied in May as the Israeli crop was down due to frosts.”
He also reported that good co-operation between different sources has had a positive impact on the campaign this summer. “Peruvian volumes were slightly above projections,” said Devlin. “But the associations in Peru and South Africa have been talking to each other with the objective of giving a nice even flow of product to market and we have seen that in particular this year. The European market has been a little bit crowded this month, which can happen sometimes in August, but the encouraging news for growers is that the markets are consuming more.”
South African availability is expected to go through to the end of September as usual, before Israel once again takes up the baton.
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