South Africa: Growers pleased with the start of avocado season

South African growers and shippers have been pleased with the great start and good opening prices that the South African avocado marketing season has had in Europe and the United Kingdom this year. The usual trend is good prices at the start of the season due to short supply and this has again been the case as avocado crops are down worldwide this year. In addition to this, the first South African shipments arrived to a particularly undersupplied market due to disruption and delays of the Peruvian avocado season this year due to flooding in their production regions.

The South African avocado harvest is from early March until early November and more than 95 % of the exports are destined for the Europe (75 %) and the United Kingdom (20 %). South African product usually faces considerable competition from Peruvian volumes on the market as Peru has recently become the second largest international avocado producer after Mexico and is the biggest competition for South African avocados from Southern Hemisphere production. This is set to increase in the next few as from 2014 Peru was expected to double their avocado productions within four to five years.
The industry is expecting the production volumes to be a bit lower than last year and estimates are closer to 50 000 tons compared to the 2016 total volume of 54 000 tons. Derek Donkin, CEO of Subtrop, The South African Subtropical Growers’ Association, explained that Avocados are alternate bearers, bearing well every second year and this year the harvest is lighter after last year’s heavy crop. Louise Brodie

Read more in issue 23/2017 of Fruchthandel Magazin.