South African avocados have enjoyed a strong season on the UK market despite drastically reduced volumes due to inclement weather conditions and the biannual bearing effect.
The season, which started at the end of April closed in mid-October with exports totalling some 6.8 million cartons compared to 11.9m in the 2010 campaign.
The UK is one of South Africa’s leading markets for avocados and received some 20 per cent of total exports this season, 63 per cent of which were Hass and 37 per cent green-skinned types.
Derek Donkin, chief executive of the South Africa Avocado Growers’ Association (SAAGA) said: “Despite the difficult weather conditions that the industry endured, it has been a strong season in terms of quality. Growers, packers and exporters were diligent in applying best practice in order to deliver quality fruit.
“Our campaign in the UK has achieved solid cut-through and we are delighted with the results to date.”
Promotional activity was co-ordinated by Richmond Towers Communications und the over-arching Take a Dip with Summer Avocados theme which developed the idea of dipping and sharing into a more general summer lifestyle campaign, with recipes and tips for al fresco dining, guacamole and other dips in a hugely popular recipe booklet. Videos produced as part of the campaign showing consumers how to make some of the recipes were uploaded to YouTube and a summer avocados Facebook page was launched.
Retailer activity included in-store sampling in 200 Asda stores, 200,000 on-pack labels in Sainsbury’s and coupon labels on M&S baby avocado packs. Rob Metcalfe, MD of Richmond Towers said: “This is our 16th year consecutive year working with SAAGA and one of the best yet with exceptionally strong demand for our recipe booklet and a real boost online via both our website and our Facebook page.”
