The Chilean Hass Avocado Association (CHAA) is preparing for its fourth annual promotion of Hass avocados in the UK market, with first shipments of the fruit expected to arrive in the UK market in the third week of September.
This year’s campaign focuses on the culinary uses of Hass avocados in addition to their health benefits, featuring a mixture of pubic relations events and in-store incentives to drive sales of Hass during the winter season.
Television chef and previous Masterchef winner, Thomasina Miers, has been recruited for this year’s campaign, and has developed five inspiring Hass recipes for use in information booklets in packs of avocados, and in consumer magazines.
Miers, who owns Covent Garden’s Wahaca restaurant, will carry out a demonstration of avocado preparation for food journalists at Divertimenti cookery school in central London. She will also welcome guests to the fourth annual Avocado Brotherhood lunch, held for the second time at Claridge’s.
In addition during October, demonstrations of avocado preparation and uses will be held for first-year students of Westminster Kingsway College, which has produced some of Britain’s best-known chefs including Jamie Oliver and Ainsley Harriott. This will be preceded by a tour of New Covent Garden Market, where students will have a chance to talk to catering suppliers about sourcing a good avocado.
The CHAA is sponsoring the family race day at Huntingdon Race Course, and has named the final race of the day Chilean Hass Avocados For Healthy Hearts Handicap Hurdle. The occasion also features Britain’s famous Mascot Grand National, where the Chilean Hass Avocado Man will race against around 100 of the country’s fittest mascots from, among others, the worlds of sport, leisure and food.
This season, total production of Chilean Hass avocados is expected to fall around 10 per cent on last season, when the country produced around 156,000 tonnes and exported 117,000t. This is due to groves continuing to recover from last year’s frost, and drought in valleys in some Chilean growing regions.
While total exports are forecast to decrease to between 100,000t and 110,000t, the CHAA believes it will maintain export levels set in key markets such as the UK. Last year, Chile exported 7,200t of Hass avocados to the UK during the season, a record that has been extended each year since it began its winter campaign.
Adolfo Ochagavía, president of the CHAA, said: “The UK is a very important market for Chilean Hass avocados, where we are looking forward to another successful season. We have seen encouraging growth in sales since our first promotional campaign in 2005/06. If we educate shoppers about the health benefits and good fats of Hass avocados, and encourage them to use this fruit in a variety of ways, we can continue to drive this growth forward further, with existing and new purchasers.”
Chilean Hass avocado growers are increasing Hass plantings to cover around 30,000 hectares. This, coupled with the recovery of trees that were damaged last year, promises a return to normal or higher production volumes for the 2009-10 season.
The CHAA also promotes Hass avocados in the Chilean, Spanish and Argentinean markets, and will also expand its campaign to Sweden and Denmark this year.
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