Avoscene july 2015

Avoscene New Zealand Avocado Growers’ Journal

July 2015

Inside this issue: Tree decline - how do good growers get better?

Thailand: no room for complacency New Zealand avocado industry standing out in China Back to basics approach proves successful for Ross Mutton and Lesley Skill

New Zealand avocados achieve record sales volumes Avoscene July 2015

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Join AVOCO. You can’t afford not to.

Strong returns Market development Industry leadership

Growers supplying AVOCO get the best of both worlds – access to developing markets and strong Orchard Gate Returns year after year.

group and know you’re in safe hands, now and in the future. That’s the AVOCO advantage.

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Avoscene July 2015

www.avoco.co.nz

AV0715

Support the largest grower-led export supply

NZ Avocado Office PO Box 13267 Tauranga 3141

Contents

New Zealand Level 5, Harrington House 32 Harington Street Tauranga 3110 Ph: 07 571 6147 or 0800 AVOCADO (0800 286 2236)

Comment

On the Orchard

Newsroom

www.nzavocado.co.nz

View from the Chair

4

Industry news

18

@NZ_Avocado

Growing the business

6

New faces

23

NZ Avocado

Going global

9

Industry matters

23

@nz_avocado

Outside the box

NZ Avocado

Directors

10

Recommended reading 25

The New Zealand market

13

Avocado news from the world

Regional roundup

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Mid North Sue Culham m. 021 771 686 sculham@xtra.co.nz At Large

PGP canopy management strategies: a collaborative approach 35 Tree decline - how do good growers get better 36

Pest and disease watch: Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer 43

Markets

Reports

Thailand: no room for complacency

49

New Zealand to bid to host World Avocado Congress 2019

57

New Zealand avocado industry standing out in China

53

Avocentric Ross Mutton and Lesley Skill

61

Far North Ian Fulton Ph 09 406 8808 ian.fulton@clear.net.nz

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Irrigation requirements for avocado 41

Bay of Plenty Ashby Whitehead NZAGA & AIC Chair Ph 07 573 6680 m. 027 283 2192 alwhitehead@xtra.co.nz

New requirements for exports to Thailand

Guidelines for spraying avocados 45

Roger Barber Ph 09 435 0785 m. 021 488 124 barbers@ihug.co.nz John Cotterell Ph 07 549 3395 m. 0274 513 138 jccotterell@actrix.gen.nz Tony Ponder NZAGA Vice Chair Ph 07 552 4223 m. 0274 733 712 tony@flaxmillavocado.co.nz Rest of NZ David French Ph 09 238 3359 m. 0274 375 315 famille@ps.gen.nz

Nourish

Out and About

Avocados may hold the answer to beating leukemia

Out and About 64

Excellent time to be a fruit grower

67

Recipe

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Cover Shot:

Ross Mutton and Lesley Skill.

Export Directors Jarrod Redwood, Andrew Darling Avoscene Advertising & Editorial For editorial contact: Natasha Mitchell, Sun Media Ltd No.1 The Strand, Tauranga Ph: 07 578 0030 Fax: 07 571 1116 email natasha@thesun.co.nz For advertising contact: Suzy King at Sun Media Ltd email suzy@thesun.co.nz Design and production: Kym Johnson, Sun Media Ltd email kym@thesun.co.nz

NZ Avocado Staff Jen Scoular, CEO

Midge Munro, Communications Manager

alvaro.vidiella@nzavocado.co.nz | 021 025 20412

midge.munro@nzavocado.co.nz | 027 306 7089

Edwina Aitchison, Executive Assistant

Glenys Parton, Industry Systems Manager

Bevan Jelley, New Zealand Market

edwina.aitchison@nzavocado.co.nz | 021 977 890

glenys.parton@nzavocdo.co.nz | 0274 99 70 81

bevan.jelley@nzavocado.co.nz | 021 994 097

Jay Bent, Business Manager

Brad Siebert Biosecurity & Programme Manager

Jodi Senior, Communications Assistant

jay.bent@nzavocado.co.nz | 027 465 8886

Michael Gray, Avocado Analyst michael.gray@nzavocado.co.nz

For subscriptions contact: Michael Gray email michael.gray@nzavocado.co.nz

Alvaro Vidiella, R&D Manager

jen.scoular@nzavocado.co.nz | 021 741 014

brad.siebert@nzavocado.co.nz | 021 804 847

Phillip West, R&D Officer

jodi.senior@nzavocado.co.nz

Joanne Nunn, Administration Assistant jo.nunn@nzavocado.co.nz

phillip.west@nzavocado.co.nz | 021 706 504

Danni van der Heijden, Research Assistant danielle.vanderheijden@nzavocado.co.nz

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Comment

View from the Chair

By Ashby Whitehead, Chair, NZAGA & AIC

alwhitehead@xtra.co.nz

A great result has been achieved by the industry for the 2014-15 season. The battle the industry faced last season may have been won but the challenges will continue to come in the form of competitive overseas production and the race to develop new markets.

End of season results

What a great result from the industry, having sold the biggest crop ever and returning a good value to growers. $135 million, almost matching our returns from the previous season, is a massive achievement when compared to the previous record season’s result.

This has been achieved by our exporters, local marketers and industry communicating and putting in place monitoring to signal potential issues.

Some of the largest week-by-week volumes were sold in

Australia last season – more than 300,000 trays in some weeks, which threatened to stretch the market beyond its capacity. However, with the communication between exporters, the flow was managed and sold at value.

Western Australia

I recently had the opportunity of travelling to Western Australia to better understand their volume production and capacity. I met with representatives from a packing facility that is investing in a new six line grader and new shed and has also ordered a high pressure processing pressing plant from Spain. This shed currently has a supply base of 350ha with a view the plantings happening in that area will require the investment they are making in order to pack and process it.

Another grower visited, who also has his own packing facility, shared that within five years he will have between him and his brother 1000ha of Hass avocados planted. He showed us the new 100ha area he has just cleared, ready to plant 30,000 trees. Sourcing trees has been a problem for him, so he now has his own nursery.

Having seen and heard about all this new development only strengthened my thinking that we need to develop markets outside Australia. The window of opportunity in that market will definitely diminish during the next few years, so finding alternative markets for the volume in the August to December window will become imperative.

China

Gaining access to China has become one of the NZAGA & AIC Board’s main focuses. Understanding the market in China is also very important. At present Mexico is doing a good job of making the Chinese consumer aware of avocados but the fruit they are supplying is small and at a low value.

The New Zealand avocado industry needs to position our fruit as a large sized, premium fruit. We already have other Asian markets for our small fruit.

The opportunity in China is massive but picking the right

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Comment

partners and getting close to the consumer will be the challenge our exporters have. Building good relationships and understanding the market are imperative but one of the most important things is making sure all, and I mean ALL, of the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed. The paper work needs to be right.

Government Industry Agreements

Following the industry’s support to sign the GIA deed, an application demonstrating the New Zealand avocado industry’s eligibility to sign up to GIA has now been approved by the Board and will be submitted to MPI in July.

Nominations for new Board members were called for in May. It became apparent that too few growers are willing to put their hand up for a position.

Dave Flett of Tauranga has been elected unopposed to BOP/ Rest of NZ and will take office on 1 October 2015 after the Annual General Meeting. John Cotterell and I were reelected unopposed to our newly named region BOP/Rest of NZ. The mid-North position unfortunately received no nominations.

Board update

Having grower Board members setting the strategic direction of the industry is imperative to maintaining grower control of the industry.

I accepted Sue Culham’s resignation from the Board in April.

It has been a pleasure working with Sue - her contribution to Board and industry issues has been greatly appreciated.

We hope to see you back on the Board one day.

I urge those of you who are interested in governance to do some research, talk to current Board members and/or the CEO and consider putting yourself forward when election time comes around again.

NZ Avocado Grower Forum and Annual General Meeting 26 August 2015

Grower Fo ru • Updates m: 10:30am - 3:30p on industry m • Worksho ps on your activity most press managem ing orchard e Growers, register now for the NZ Avocado • Outlook fo nt challenges Grower Forum and Annual General Meeting • Lunch r the 2015-16 sea son and • NZ Avoca refreshments includ to be held at Club Mount Maunganui, do membe e rs free of ch d 45 Kawaka Street Mount Maunganui. arge AGM: 4:00 pm - 5:30p m • 2014-15 ye • 2015-16 ar in review See the industry website for full details on these b • Voting on udget re events www.nzavocado.co.nz/industry • Afternoo mits n tea and re freshments included Registration for EACH of these events is AGM Dinn er: 6:30pm on Dinner and essential for catering, space and AGM voting beverages wards at own cost requirements. Please register with NZ Avocado

by 14 August by calling 0800 286 2236 or emailing jo.nunn@nzavocado.co.nz

All growers intending to export avocados in the current season must be registered with Avocado Industry Council (AIC) as set out in the industry Export Marketing Strategy (EMS).

You can complete this registration online at the NZ Avocado website https://secure.nzavocado.co.nz/ Grower export registrations completed and paid by 17 August are $150+GST. Registrations made after this date will be $300+GST Please call NZ Avocado is you have any questions about this process - 0800 AVOCADO.

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Comment

Growing the business

By Jen Scoular, CEO, New Zealand Avocado

jen.scoular@nzavocado.co.nz

The 2015-16 season is looking exciting, with planning meetings, talks about New Zealand avocados’ access to China progressing, the World Avocado Congress in Peru just around the corner, and advances being made in the way the industry can measure and track the performance of individual orchards against the rest of the industry. iFresh, Shanghai

I’m sitting writing this in the NZ Avocado booth in the conference hall at iFresh in Shanghai. Our focus on gaining phytosanitary access for our avocados to China warrants a separate article which you will find on page 53. To date this has been a very valuable trip and worth the late night planning and effort from my wider team to help get the results we need.

Even before we start to understand the fresh fruit market in China, we acknowledge the learnings we must make about the culture of the Chinese people, and the way that impacts the way they will do business. It’s fascinating and challenging, and with the continuing changing environment and ability of China to accept change, it is a challenge we may never quite master.

World Avocado Congress

It is exciting news that we will bid to host the World Avocado Congress in Auckland in 2019!

The Board approved the business case in June, and as it would involve the wider industry, I have shared that business case on page 57.

“The industry is feeling as healthy and vital as the amazing product we grow and market”

When I first mentioned to Midge that we should bid to host a world congress, we had only just recovered from the major efforts of organising the highly successful 2013 conference and truthfully she just about fell off her chair.

But not being able to turn down such an opportunity, and certainly not scared to accept a challenge, we are very excited to be planning a bid which we will present in Lima in September.

We have secured support from Tourism NZ and the city of Auckland, in both resource and funding, to put together a bid, and an offer to support the congress if we are successful in the bid. Plant & Food Research has also offered support, and sees real opportunity of hosting the world’s avocado research experts in our home country.

It is not yet clear from the Peru organisers what the bid process will entail, but we will certainly be asking for support for “Team New Zealand 2019” from everyone attending the Congress in September.

Speaking of which, I hope you have seen the AvoConnects about the Congress, registrations, and the travel agents able to help with flights and tours. We are not able to organise tours or flights but have provided experts who can help. Five of my team are travelling, Alvaro, Phillip, Midge and I are presenting. Midge is being funded by Tourism NZ, to support the 2019 bid, Phillip is being funded by PGP, to build our capability, and Glenys is attending to ensure she is up-to-date with new developments in export systems.

Understanding the capability we need to build as a team to support the strategy to triple productivity and quadruple sales by 2023, I am very confident the cash outlay for us to attend the conference will be well repaid in terms of our learnings, connections and exposure to other industries and expertise.

Planning activity for 2015-16

At the March Board meeting we presented the annual plan for 2015-16 for comment. We then incorporated the Board’s feedback and presented the annual budget at the

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Jen Scoular,Tony Ponder and AshbyWhitehead with avocado collateral in a Chinese supermarket.

April meeting. With the annual plan and budget approved, we are now well into planning activity for 2015-16.

The first crop estimate has come in at 4.4m trays, with 2.9m export and 1.5m New Zealand market, fresh and processed. I’m certainly hoping the estimate is pessimistic; with the success of new market development and the strong consumption increases in Australia, the industry has established demand for export volumes of 3.5m to 4m trays, rather than 2.9m.

Orchard performance benchmarking

Jay, Phillip and I are updating our benchmarking for the 2014-15 results, so at the AGM will be able to share how our orchards are performing. We’d also like to share with you a chart showing how your orchard performance compares to the industry – for more information, see our offer on page 24.

This issue of AvoScene…

It is great to see the results from the hard work Alvaro, Phillip and the Plant & Food Research team are achieving with their productivity projects. Real praise for the collaboration across the scientific community, including the growers and consultants involved in our trials and working groups.

Brad updates you on the new Thailand export requirements on page 31 and the R&D team give updates on pruning and irrigation - the information which was shared at our field days in June. We also have our regular AvoCentric grower profile – this issue features Ross and Lesley Mutton from Kaitaia, successful growers with improving orchard performance.

I’m pleased about the new updates on our website on the R&D projects; this has been a joint project between Midge and Alvaro, to ensure the great work on the orchards is able to be shared with the wider industry. We’re including notes, videos and photos. We would be very happy to hear from you on which of these you find most useful.

The industry is feeling as healthy and vital as the amazing product we grow and market. Keep up the great work!

Do let us know if there are particular things you really like, or things we could improve. I enjoy the feedback you give from AvoConnect. I also encourage you to attend the AGM and Grower Forum on 26 August, in Tauranga.

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A DV E RT I S E M E N T

The AVOCO advantage As a grower, what’s most important to you and your orchard business?

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or most of you, strong Orchard Gate Returns will rank highly. For others, a secure and sustainable industry for the future will be just as critical.

The great news is that by supplying AVOCO – you can have both.

Since our export group formed, more than 700 growers have signed up to supply AVOCO with the knowledge and satisfaction that they’re supporting a model that has the best interests of both the grower and industry at heart.

It helps that we’re grower-led – we already understand how most growers tick. It also helps that we deliver what we say we will.

In 2011-12, we listened to growers when they said they wanted more collaboration between exporters and less volatile returns at the orchard gate. It was out of these conversations that AVOCO was born.

A partnership between two of New Zealand’s most experienced exporters, Southern Produce and Primor, AVOCO 8

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united the avocado industry and lifted its profile on the global stage.

With our AVANZA partner, we built relationships in exciting new Asian markets and developed a platform for future growth.

It helps that we’re grower-led – we already understand how most growers tick.

Our expert marketing teams have positioned AVANZA branded avocados as a premium product which is proving popular with consumers across Asia. As their diets become more Westernised and we achieve access to even more markets, this demand is only set to increase – good news for AVOCO growers and the industry as a whole.

Our global approach gives us greater influence within the Australian market, which ultimately means more dollars in grower pockets. Australia remains the highest paying market in the world and our industry’s lifeblood so it’s one we’re committed to nurturing. AVOCO’s collaborative model ensures Australia will always be well looked after.

Last season’s export volume was a record-breaker for the industry and a real test for AVOCO, but with OGRs in the midteens, we passed with flying colours.

Now, with another season fast approaching, we want even more growers to join us.

By supplying AVOCO, you’re making a commitment to doing the best for the New Zealand avocado industry. We are 100% focused on you, which means you’ll feel informed and part of a larger movement to take our industry to Australia and the world.

AVOCO’s pool system means that as a grower, you’ll always be treated equally and fairly. As well as strong Orchard Gate Returns, you’ll also get access to expert technical advice, market updates and the shared knowledge of growers like you who’ve “been there, done that.”

AVOCO has achieved something special – for the fortunes of its growers as well as the industry’s future.

Talk to us about how you can enjoy the best of both worlds too.

www.avoco.co.nz

Going global Comment

By Jarrod Redwood, Avocado Programme Manager jredwood@freshmax.co.nz

The 2014-15 season can only be described as remarkable; exporting New Zealand’s largest crop to date, growing existing markets, developing new markets, and delivering returns to growers that exceeded all expectations. An excellent season was experienced by all but there is still much we have learnt this season and the continuous improvement of what we do must continue.

Do look back fondly at all that we as an industry achieved in

2014-15, but also take the time to analyse the season in detail; what worked and what could have been managed better?

Crucial to this is how do we take those learnings and apply them to ensure continued and sustainable category growth?

With the export volume for the current season estimated to be 2.8 million or roughly 60% of last year’s crop, it is of utmost importance that while we cannot achieve category volume growth in our emerging off-shore markets outside of Australia, that we preserve our presence in them.

Developing Asia

Having spent 12 days in June visiting customers throughout South East Asia, Korea and Japan, it is very apparent that while we have achieved significant volume growth in these markets there is a distinct lack of understanding across critical industry aspects.

There have been noteworthy improvements in the areas of cool-chain management, best practice handling procedures, pre-conditioning practice, the communication of avocado nutritional benefits, in-store presentation and effective educational point of sale. However, we need to continue working with developing markets in these key areas to ensure robust and efficient off-shore supply chain practices are in place for the next large volume season. Ultimately we are all striving to ensure our end customers receive the most optimum eating experience.

When considering the South East Asian markets it is imperative we do not group them all together but treat them as a single market. Each country has its own unique characteristics and attributes which significantly influence how we interact with them and how we should promote avocados from New Zealand. Keep in mind market maturity, phytosanitary requirements, geographical proximity, foreign exchange rates and competition from other growing countries such as Mexico, Chile and Peru when dealing with Asian markets.

Growing presence in Thailand

Thailand is a country that offers a very unique market opportunity. Due to phytosanitary requirements, New Zealand is currently the only country with official market access. While it is unknown how long this beneficial situation will remain in

‘Taste of New Zealand’ promotional stand at Freshmax, Kuala Lumpar.

play, it is obvious there is a window of opportunity to cement New Zealand avocados as the avocado of choice for this quickly developing market.

Trade and consumer perception of New Zealand produce is steadily improving within the Thailand market. New Zealand’s clean and green image, established and well-known food safety protocols, alongside high quality fruit, continues to reinforce this perception.

Recently a major Thai retailer carried out a ‘Taste of New Zealand’ promotion, highlighting a range of products grown and processed in New Zealand. Ambassadors were operating in-store actively influencing consumers to engage with the promoted products, informative point of sale material was displayed and in some instances the New Zealand company representatives were on hand in-store to personally educate consumers on the benefits of their products and of New Zealand as a whole.

Across our current South East Asian customer base one characteristic is clear; they have a deep appreciation and appetite to engage with our fruit and to continue promoting New Zealand avocados. As an industry we must continue to develop and nurture these key markets.

The 2015-16 season will no doubt bring a range of commercial challenges in developing markets, including the smaller volume available for export alongside the anticipated strong Australian trading conditions. This is a balance as an industry we continually have to manage to ensure long term sustainability and value to our key stakeholders – you, our growers.

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Comment

Outside the box Dale Gradon, Packhouse MSO Inspector/Grower Files Administrator Just Avocados

dale@justavocados.co.nz

Market compliance is the driving force behind NZ Avocado’s export requirements for growers, packers and exporters. With new season fruit currently sizing on trees, there are many points growers need to be covering off throughout the year to ensure fruit is compliant for market. A brief overview of requirements is shared in this article.

AvoGreen monitoring:

All export fruit must be AvoGreen compliant, meaning monitoring has taken place and pest thresholds have been reached to justify spray application.

AvoGreen monitoring must be completed in one of two ways – under the Owner-operator system where the orchard owner/manager is accredited to undertake their own monitoring, or by engaging a registered AvoGreen Operator who will arrange accredited AvoGreen Monitors to complete monitoring rounds on your behalf.

Many packhouses offer this service, and there are also other independent AIC Registered Operators (a full list of these can be found on the NZ Avocado website).

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If you are undertaking the job yourself then consultation with your spray contractor, packhouse client relations manager or another knowledgeable person is recommended. Any incorrect use of sprays can constitute ‘off label use’, which could hinder market access.

AIC Spray Diary:

Orchard spraying for pest control:

All sprays applied to your orchard must be entered into the AIC Spray Diary prior to harvest. It is recommended they be entered within seven days of application to allow you and your packhouse to plan and manage market suitability.

Firstly, anyone applying sprays must hold a current Growsafe certificate.

The Spray Diary is a historical record of spray information so can be a useful tool for you to analyse

Pest types have varying periods of ‘high-risk’ which should be taken into account when planning your monitoring intervals.

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Secondly, spraying can take place only if your AvoGreen monitoring results (which are valid for 1 month) show pest numbers have reached or exceeded the pest thresholds set by the AIC in the AvoGreen manual.

However, one non-monitored leafroller spray is allowed post-flowering between 1 November and 30 January to help protect the fruit’s aesthetic quality.

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The programmes require evidence of orchard management such as health & safety and hygiene policies, AvoGreen compliance and orchard husbandry.

when periods of pest pressure are likely to occur.

Packhouse proposal and contract:

Contracts must be signed and returned to your packing facility.

This year there are new requirements for exporting to Thailand, so please ensure you understand those.

AIC export registration:

By the time AIC export registration opens in June, you will have done a crop estimate and know whether you ide the box will be exporting for the current season.

ale Gradon

Contractors:

All spray contractors are audited to recognised standards (e.g. Globalgap), especially if they spray multiple crop types. Most harvest contractors are audited to either NZGAP or Globalgap.

A focus for the industry this season is to ensure ALL contractors are compliant to one of these standards.

Harvesting and traceability:

Registration must be completed before

house MSO Inspector/Grower Administrator harvest.

The grower Files will agree to terms

Avocadosand conditions plus the requirements

set out in the Export Marketing @justavocados.co.nz Strategy (EMS).

Maturity & residue testing:

ket compliance is thehas driving force behind Maturity a direct correlation vocado’s export requirements for growers, to ripe taste and texture. The ers and exporters. With new season fruit maturity requirements are set by ently sizing on trees, there are many points the AIC EMS. wers need to be covering off throughout the must be byAanbrief to ensureEarly fruit isfruit compliant fortested market. independentisagency (e.g. view of requirements shared in thisAgfirst). article.

Your packhouse may complete a preliminary test beforehand to assess likelihood of a pass. ar in avocados

Residue

Sprays

Before your fruit can be harvested, you, your packhouse and your exporter need to confirm exportability.

Firstly the Spray Diary needs to be declared by the packhouse. This Contractors Maturity is another very important part of compliance and a point that Compliance must be met prior to harvest.

Fertiliser Avogreen Declaring the diary means that Tree Health all sprays applied to your orchard have been entered into the diary Inspection Harvest and there are no withholding period issues from those sprays applied.

Registration

To ensure traceability of fruit harvested, prior to full bins leaving the orchard you or your harvester must ensure all bins can be traced back to your orchard.

A blanket maturity clearance will be issued by AIC once Green monitoring: This can be achieved by bin cards which will have a they ascertain all fruit will have reached the dry-matter reference xport fruitrequirements must be AvoGreen compliant, meaning monitoring has taken place and pestsystem to your orchard – generally by PPIN, (generally around September/October). sholds have been reached to justify spray application. block number if applicable, and date of harvest.

Residue testing for some markets is also a requirement.

Green monitoring must agrichemicals be completed in onebeen of two ways – under system If particular have used during thethe Owner-operator Tree Health: re the orchard owner/manager is accredited to undertake their own monitoring, or by engaging season – your packhouse will provide this information.

Your trees need to be prepared for the crop they may gistered AvoGreen Operator who will arrange accredited AvoGreen Monitors to complete be holding, as well as future crops. Soil and leaf tests, itoring rounds on your behalf. Many packhouses offer this service, and there are also other Orchard Inspection & Compliance: generally in April, will show the health status of pendent AIC registered Operators (a full list of these can be found on the NZ Avocadotaken website).

Most markets need assurance that food safety and your trees and orchard. Fertiliser recommendations from types have varying periods of ‘high-risk’have which should when planning sustainability requirements been metbe in taken the into account these results will enable you to apply fertilisers at the monitoring intervals. of avocados. This is confirmed by inspections production right time of year; remember, fertiliser applications can which can take place either by your packhouse under also be entered into your Spray Diary. ard spraying for pest control: their ‘umbrella’ compliance programme or by an y, anyoneindependent applying sprays must(e.g. hold Asurequality) a current Growsafe agency usingcertificate. a recognised For new growers it may seem daunting, but your packhouse contacts are here to help you get it right. compliance programme (e.g. NZGAP/ Globalgap).

ndly, spraying can take place only if your AvoGreen monitoring results (which are valid for 1 th) show pest numbers have reached or exceeded the pest thresholds set by the AIC in the Green manual. However, one non-monitored leafroller spray is allowed post-flowering between vember and 30 January to help protect the fruit’s aesthetic quality.

u are undertaking the job yourself then consultation with your spray contractor, packhouse

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The New Zealand market Comment

Glen Dunseath, Business & Marketing Manager, Zeafruit

glen@zeafruit.co.nz

The 2014-15 season is over and everybody is now looking forward to and gearing up for a new season start over the coming weeks. Before looking ahead it is a good time to reflect on a big domestic season.

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inal values for the season have us over the $30 million mark for the New Zealand market at first point of sale, a solid result considering the last time we had this volume, in 2011-12, the New Zealand market achieved $19 million.

It has been a long and challenging season, but a season that further underlines the need for industry-wide cooperation and communication. We may not always agree with each other but at least the discussions are happening.

The coming 2015-16 season sees a complete refocus on our approach and management of available fruit volumes with forecast numbers back to around 1.3 million fresh trays, similar to the 2013-14 season. With a reduced volume available, we should see some better average returns on offer and a planned and structured approach to picking and packing volumes.

Matching supply to demand and promotional activity will again be the key to managing fruit supply volumes.

The drive again in the early season is about maturity.

Agfirst is available to provide independent collection and testing services and NZ Avocado will cover the cost of this for all early season tests that pass. Despite considerable discussion and effort, the last two seasons have been affected by immature early fruit in reasonable volumes, last year impacting returns in July significantly.

The follow-on from getting our maturity correct is ripening. Trials clearly show on a side-by-side sale basis that ripened avocados showing colour will out-sell green fruit nine to one. Anybody selling green unripened fruit is putting sales on hold for everybody, and even on a low volume year enough green fruit can quickly reduce grower returns as sales stall.

The new season promises plenty, however as an industry we need to get the starting points spot on to ensure customer satisfaction. The early eating experience will go a long way towards ensuring a positive season for all stakeholders.

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News and views from your NZAGA Regional Representatives

Comment

Regional Roundup

David French - Rest of New Zealand

In mid-June I welcomed some overseas visitors to my orchard in Glenbrook; four Australians and one Kiwi – Daryl Boardman, a Grower Director on the Australian equivalent of the NZAGA Board, Avocados Australia Ltd, Daryl’s friend Doug (who appropriately enough drives diggers, as well as growing Zespri 16A kiwifruit at Mt Tamborine), Daryl’s dad Allan, and Allan’s mate Tom. My Glenbrook neighbour and fellow avocado and kiwifruit grower JT was also there.

industry overview, I gave a quick description of my orchard methods, Danni van der Heijden talked about orchard performance and the industry performance benchmarking charts, and then we moved into the orchard for a series of scientific presentations.

The four of them had come over for the Mystery Creek Field Days and had a spare afternoon to fill, so decided to drive out to Glenbrook. The conversation immediately turned to pruning and I was keen to hear Daryl’s comments on the pruning we have been doing on our orchard. Daryl is a straight talker and pointed out a couple of things he didn’t agree with, so I gave him the chainsaw and said “show us your method”. He quickly whipped off three or four large branches but what he left looked good and made sense, so I decided that I should attempt to prune the rest of that block in a similar style.

Nick Gould spoke about the possible effects of temperature on fruit set and the projects that are going on in this area. It was an especially interesting topic for me, with my orchard being a bit frost prone.

My immediate thoughts were that we have been worrying too much about small cuts and need to become far more aggressive if we want to make a real difference to the light levels in our orchard. We then moved across to our kiwifruit orchard and talked about kiwifruit pruning until dark. Then to end an already great day, the six of us, plus JT’s partner Tina, went out for a nice dinner together (the Aussies shouted!!).

The next morning (Wednesday) we all met in Pukekohe and travelled in convoy to the Mystery Creek Field Days, and managed to look at probably 10% of what was there.

Thursday was a kiwifruit day, but I was looking forward to Friday as our orchard was the venue for the NZ Avocado field day for South Auckland.

Friday afternoon came and about 35 local growers turned up. Jen Scoular started with an

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Phillip West spoke about tree decline and the progress being made by the Far North working group.

We were standing beside my tree that Daryl had pruned, so there was also some debate about that, then the weather deteriorated so we all headed back to the shed for a hot coffee or a cold beer.

On Friday night Daryl rang to see how the field day had gone. He was keen to call in on the way back to Auckland and check my pruning progress. I reported that the field day had been a real success and that it would be great to have him call in, so on Saturday morning I started up the chainsaw and did a couple of rows.

Daryl and his team arrived in the afternoon, critiqued my attempt, and thought I had done a reasonable job from what they could see.

We then went along to JT’s and looked at his kiwifruit and avocados before polishing off an awesome afternoon tea (thanks Tina).

I farewelled the Australian visitors and went home to watch the Chiefs lose to the mighty Hurricanes.

So I had a good week, and feel that I have made a paradigm shift in my pruning. I look forward to doing some more chain sawing and catching up with Daryl again in the not too distant future.

Comment

Roger Barber - At Large 09.06.15

Early forecasts of crop potential for the 2015-16 season for the Whangarei district are disappointing, with predictions for, at best, only a moderate crop. This follows patchy flowering throughout the district. Even on individual orchards fruit set was variable, which followed the pattern of the uneven flowering. This most likely was the result of multiple storms and wet conditions throughout much of the winter.

What is even more disappointing is the trend in falling production in the district compared to the national average. Constraints in soil drainage caused by the tight volcanic subsoils and heavy and unpredictable rainfall lead to secondary infection of the roots by the phytophthora soil fungus, which is restricting root development and activity. This is accentuated as the trees age, and progressively loose vigour. This highlights the need for supplementary drainage in Whangarei orchards – a fact which is still not widely recognised and accepted.

The bright star on the horizon is the performance of the new clonal rootstocks, particularly Bounty and Dusa, which appear to better able to handle the more difficult soil conditions which impair root aeration and tree performance. It is pleasing to note the high nursery demand for these clonal

trees, not only for replants on existing orchards, but also for much of the new orchard development which has resumed around the wider Whangarei and Mangawhai districts.

Another unrelated factor which has been entertaining the minds of Whangarei growers, as it has in other districts, has been the issue of biosecurity, particularly whether avocado growers should sign up to the Government Industry Agreement (GIA.) The NZAGA Board grappled with this decision since 2011 and concluded the best option was to recommend to grower stakeholders that they sign the GIA Deed. After a wide round of consultation with growers, a postal ballot gained 87% of grower support for the NZAGA to become a signatory to the GIA Deed.

The next step is to make a case for eligibility for avocado growers to enter into the GIA contract with the Government. This step has now been taken and at the time of writing, we are waiting for the Government’s response.

The eagerness with which the kiwifruit industry embraced and signed the GIA Agreement after its experience with the devastation caused by the bacterial disease Psa, suggests that we have made the right decision.

Let’s work together At MG Marketing our relationship with the growers we work with is one of partnership, with the overriding objective being to make your growing enterprise an outstanding and sustainable success, regardless the size of your business.

You focus on what you do best – growing quality produce and we MG Marketing provide a proven, constructive, profitable link between our many produce growers, retail and food service clients.

Such a partnership secures you a healthy income and value for your efforts.

MG’s highly experienced procurement team maintains close and regular contact with you as an avocado supplier, offering tailored practical advice and support.

They also undertake a multitude of related tasks, to ensure growers benefit from efficiency improvements and market feedback. These may include, for example, on line receipting systems, general administrative support, business reviews, transport and packaging options and quality control measures.

If you would like to know more about any of these areas, please contact our procurement team.

Ian Reisima 021 749 644 ianr@mgmarketing.co.nz

Roger Georgieff 021 229 6398 rgeorgieff@mgmarketing.co.nz

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Comment

Tony Ponder - At Large 09.06.15

“Dine around Group 8 – Coconut Paradise” China is collaborating, sharing expertise, and investing to build infrastructure and capacity, and creating value for its economy.

In May I travelled through China on a market access brief, sharing insights on the growing avocado category, and establishing relationships that will ultimately contribute to successful commercial execution of our strategy in this market. The reality is that to be successful as an industry we will also have to adopt similar principles. From each visit you understand a little more of this market, but I still inevitably return home realising just how little we know.

Our China strategy is yet to fully evolve, however I believe it must be based on the premise that we need a sustainable alternative market for large sized fruit in the front half of our harvest season. Predictably Mexican fruit sold in China is small sized (typically count size 34), available all year and competitively priced (between US$16.00-18.00 CIF) - obviously less than we can sustain in terms of OGR. Make no mistake though, Mexico is shipping more fruit than it did three years ago and demand is building. Here’s the thing - in a market of this size and potential, establishing engagement with a small segment of consumers across one to two of the larger tier cities is all it will take to make the market viable from a New Zealand perspective. If we throw our initial net too wide, we run the risk of promising more than we can deliver.

Differentiation of avocados from New Zealand within this market will be imperative to realising a premium price position. We must appeal to an affluent consumer by telling a unique New Zealand story that builds empathy with our origin, quality, food safety and traceability; acknowledged reputation of these elements that is often already sitting in the consciousness of this population segment.

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The reputation of New Zealand products those consumers are interested in bridges the perceived price barrier and resonates with personal health and well-being. Everywhere you look in China is evidence of the emerging awareness among the health conscious Mums and ‘clean living’ consumers for healthy, balanced and nutritious meals.

In my view we need to collaborate as an industry and commercial sector to harmonise our key messages and optimise our premium positioning. The marketing capacity and execution will need to be laid down early and coincide with the arrival of the first fruit. Our distribution channels will be best represented by those who already have or can demonstrate an empathy for the fundamental drivers that sit behind a New Zealand premium value strategy.

More importantly, we need to retain our marketing and distribution relationships through into the market and develop a culture of influence as close as possible to our consumer.

What’s this got to do with the title of this contribution I hear you ask? Well, nothing really but sitting in the international airport in Shenzhen with Ashby, two hours past the scheduled departure time (and no boarding in sight), reviewing the draft NZAGA & AIC financial statements, I had to laugh - the hotel had printed the financial statements on recycled paper, not recycled in the green sense but paper recovered from printing not dispensed, and in our case it was a summary of the culinary requirements for attendees at the “Dine around Eight – Coconut Paradise” function in the hotel conference facility.

Some wanted no beef, some no oysters or mussels, but I’m assuming of course that all selected the avocados.

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Industry News

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New Zealand avocados achieve record sales volume

New Zealand’s largest ever avocado crop has been successfully harvested, packed and marketed, with a massive 7 million trays sold during the 2014-15 season.

collaborating and sharing information which is helping improve orchard performance and drive sales growth. We’re very pleased with this season’s return.”

Jen Scoular, Chief Executive of NZ Avocado, announced the new record volume which was 43 per cent higher than last season, up from a previous industry high of 6.1 million trays sold in 2011-12, and a great industry return.

This season also marks the first year of the avocado industry’s visionary Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) programme with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).

The programme, called “New Zealand Avocados Go Global”, aims to triple productivity and increase avocado sales to $280m by 2023.

“Growth in the consumption of avocados in our key markets continues to be very impressive. The Australian market performed very well for us, with strong matching of supply and demand by our exporters. Demand for our premium produce is growing in emerging Asian markets like Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. The New Zealand market performed well, with new collateral and increased engagement within the sector. To have achieved sales of $135m in our largest season to date is a fantastic result and a credit to the hard work across the industry.”

The industry has almost matched last season’s record sales of $136m thanks to strong consumer demand, a collaborative strategy across exporters and New Zealand marketers, and efforts to manage volumes and develop new markets.

“The New Zealand avocado industry is in great shape. We are working well together, jointly developing collateral and new markets, collaborating with resources and information and seeing real value being created across the industry,” Jen says.

“Growers, packers, marketers and exporters are

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“NZ Avocados Go Global is a five year programme and based on this year’s results we believe this forecast is achievable. We have an extensive R&D programme now in place. We have a strong partnership with Plant & Food Research, and have secured additional research funding through MBIE. Through these programmes we are analysing a number of factors such as irrigation, canopy management and tree health to develop and implement best practise to increase productivity.”

New Zealand avocados are marketed overseas as a premium, safe, and healthy fruit, and for the first time exporters of New Zealand avocados were invited to apply to a new contestable promotions fund. Communications Manager Midge Munro says NZ Avocado made $150,000 available which resulted in $350,000 worth of promotional activity being carried out.

“Exporters are making good use of the New Zealand avocado category story collateral, from use of the beautiful imagery for in-store tastings to the innovative wrapping of

a van which drove through the streets of Tokyo and offered avocado smoothies and samples to consumers at farmers’ markets and other busy weekend spots,” Midge says.

“We showcased New Zealand avocados at Asia’s largest fresh produce trade show, Asia Fruit Logistica, in Hong Kong last September and had a terrific response. Our marketing collateral is being used successfully by exporters and at industry events in Singapore, Japan, Korea, Thailand and India and we’ve had lots of positive feedback from current and potential in-market partners.”

Here at home, New Zealanders consumed a record 1.8

Jen says local retailers and consumers are learning to recognise the amazing health benefits and great taste that avocados offer.

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Australia was once again the industry’s biggest export market, taking 3.2 million trays this season. But Jen says Asia remains the future focus. The region bought 1.3 million trays this season – almost double the previous record set in 2011-12.

million trays of avocados this season, up from 1.2 million trays the year before.

“Our public relations programme across print and social media has played a big role in promoting and sharing recipes and health information about avocados. We introduced television commercials for the first time this season and received great support from food writers about avocados. There has been a noticeable rise in consumption and interest in avocados which bodes well for our industry’s future success.”

NZ Avocado also invested more into the New Zealand market with new collateral, retail education tool kits and development of new avocado recipes.

NZ Avocado field days in Katikati and South Auckland The first two of the four NZ Avocado field days held in June saw 185 growers come together to learn about the orchard analysis and tree decline projects and the topics of canopy management, irrigation and the effects of temperature on fruit set which relate to these projects. Attendees also got to hear about the history, success and challenges of the host orchards.

Warwick and Mary Coles were the kind hosts for the Katikati field day on 11 June, where 150 industry people joined the NZ Avocado team on a rainy morning. The Coles’ orchard has been profiled for AvoCentric in AvoScene and you can recap on their success by reading their profile in the May 2014 issue.

Coles’ orchard was chosen to host the field day because it has had very

consistent production and relatively high yield in recent years – breaking out of the irregular trend that has been seen on average across other orchards in the Kauri Point area.

Among the attendees at this field day was Daryl Boardman, a Director of Avocados Australia Ltd, who came with his father and two colleagues as part of a trip around New Zealand. Daryl was a welcome guest at this event and growers appreciated him sharing his knowledge of the Aussie experience of the topics covered.

David French hosted 35 people at his orchard in Waiuku on 12 June for the South Auckland field day.

Thanks to Farmlands for their generous provision of refreshments at the end of the field day.

AlvaroVidiella presenting canopy management strategies at the Coles’ orchard.

Please visit the NZ Avocado industry website to view the handout and key messages from all the June field days: www.nzavocado.co.nz/ industry > Resources > NZ Avocado Presentations.

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Just Avocados helps “power up” Rio Olympic contender Just Avocados has recently formed a sponsorship partnership with Luuka Jones, New Zealand’s top female canoe slalom paddler, 2 times Olympian (Beijing & London) and Rio 2016 Olympic contender.

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Born and raised in Tauranga, Luuka is a huge fan of avocados and the nutrient dense fruit is a vital part of her diet.

“Excellent nutrition is a huge part of being an elite athlete and an area I am really passionate about. I love avocados

because they contain so many vital nutrients, are delicious and can be eaten anytime with any meal,” says Luuka.

She will act as brand ambassador for Just Avocados and be part of its BAYFRESH® promotional campaign during her time back in the Bay between September and April.

Currently Luuka is based in Nottingham and is competing in World Cup events across Europe in preparation for the World Championships in London, which doubles as the Olympic Qualifier event.

“Every day is an opportunity to be better and every day that is my goal. This year is about refining my routines and processes so I can be sitting on the start line of the Rio Olympics having left nothing to chance and nothing behind. There’s no easy way to get to the top. It takes a lot of patience to be constantly critiquing and challenging myself in order to get better.”

A Business student at Massey University, Luuka is a fulltime athlete supported by High Performance Sport NZ, as well as an Olympic Ambassador and “What’s up Kids?” helpline Ambassador.

To follow Luuka’s progress, you can visit her website: www.luukajones.com

Freshmax joins drive for food safety As of 1 June, 2015 the Freshmax Group has become a proud supporter of the Fresh Produce Safety Centre.

This organisation was founded by the Produce Marketing Association Australia-New Zealand (PMA A-NZ) in partnership with the University of Sydney.

is impressive and so important to our industry we had to get involved.”

Its core drive is to enhance fresh produce safety across Australia and New Zealand through research, outreach and education.

“We are delighted to have the Freshmax Group as a supporter of our industry-led Fresh Produce Safety Centre. It is vital that industry get involved in the work of the Centre, and Freshmax is doing just that by becoming a Centre supporter. We especially welcome their engagement on future FPSC research projects.”

Freshmax joins the fight as both a sponsor of the organisation and as a project specific sponsor for the future.

“This gives us a great opportunity to support the projects that relate specifically to our business and that of our suppliers and clients” says Ross Kane, Group CEO. “The work that the PMA are doing through this initiative

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The CEO of PMA A-NZ, Michael Worthington, welcomed Freshmax Group as a supporter.

The Freshmax Group consists of a number of Australian, New Zealand and US Fresh Produce Marketers. The group includes: Freshmax New Zealand, Freshmax Australia, Deluca Banana Marketing, Valleyfresh and Crasborn Fresh Harvest.

HortNZ Conference 27-29 July HortNZ Conference Tackles Risky Business Issues - this year’s Horticulture New Zealand Conference, 27 – 29 July at the Rotorua Events Centre, is all about managing risk in your business.

The keynote speaker is Australian journalist, science commentator and rural issues expert Julian Cribb, who will challenge the way we think about feeding the world.

As always, the HortNZ conference is the ideal place to catch up on what’s going on in the wider world of New Zealand horticulture.

This is the time for networking, learning and sharing. Find out what HortNZ is doing for growers right now and find out what HortNZ plans to do for growers in the future.

New Zealand horticulture leads the world in third party assurance and HortNZ has invited a selection of high caliber experts to come and talk about where we can go next to continue to satisfy consumer and trade needs.

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Conference speakers will be looking at the challenge business owners face today – everything from global food shortages to managing the new health and safety laws.

Organisers are delighted to be hosting the GLOBALG.A.P. TOUR 2015 this year. GLOBALG.A.P. Chief Executive Officer Kristian Moeller will be one of the key speakers.

The conference awards dinner will feature the presentation of the horticulture industry’s premier award, the Bledisloe Cup, as well as two new awards just announced by the Horticulture New Zealand board, the HortNZ President’s Trophy, for inspiring industry leadership, and the HortNZ Industry Service Award, to recognise commitment to the industry from a supplier or supporter.

It’s going to be a busy and insightful couple of days.

Go here to see the programme: www.hortnz.co.nz

Hydralada bandit

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Visitors will pay to help protect our environment As announced in the New Zealand Government budget in May, visitors to New Zealand will have to pay a share of the costs associated with protecting our nation’s borders.

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From January, anyone entering the country will be charged $16, and anyone leaving will have to pay $6.

“This announcement backs up what New Zealand’s commercial fruit and vegetable growers have been saying for a long time. Passengers need to take some of the responsibility for protecting our primary industries and our native species,” HortNZ president Julian Raine says.

“Every passenger entering this country presents a risk that we must have systems in place to process and check.

New Zealand taxpayers should not be covering this cost.

“The good thing about this levy is that as the number of visitors increases, so will the revenue it generates, to cover the increased cost of processing passengers and the

risk they represent,” Julian says.

HortNZ notes the suggested $16 levy figure is still a long way off the $58 charged by Australia, a country with similar biosecurity requirements to our own.

HortNZ congratulates the Government for tackling an unpopular issue in a country so focused on developing tourism.

“But the truth is, protecting our agriculture, horticulture and viticulture industries, our home gardeners and our unique flora and fauna, must be our first consideration.”

HortNZ also welcomes the additional $24.9 million to be spent on enhancing our biosecurity border protection.

“As far as our growers are concerned, this is always money well spent,” Julian says.

Budget has highlights for horticulture On top of the announcement in the Government Budget of the new Arriving Passenger Levy for all international travellers coming to New Zealand there were a couple of other stand out decisions which should be good for horticulture: • An additional $25 million (over four years) for border security (more dogs and x-rays), • A 20% increase in tertiary funding for agriculture and a 7.5% increase for science, • Additional funding ($20.4 million over four years) to help councils with resource management law reform, • An additional $16.8 million to support the government’s programme of improving the management of freshwater, • $25 million (over three years) to encourage establishment of up to three new private regional research institutes, • And as was already announced, the Budget included cuts to ACC levies on workers, businesses and motor vehicles.

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New faces Perfect time to join industry Jodi Senior Communications Assistant, New Zealand Avocado

Jodi Senior believes she could not have chosen a better time to join the avocado industry than this year.

“I feel I have started my new job at a really cool time.”

Jodi grew up in rural Te Puke before moving to Hamilton, where she gained a Bachelor of Communication Studies majoring in marketing at the University of Waikato. After graduating, she worked in administration at the Diabetes Service in Hamilton before moving back to Te Puke.

Newsroom

The current growth, positive market results and optimism mean it is an exciting time to be part of the industry, says New Zealand Avocado’s new Communications Assistant.

more about the fruit’s attributes and the industry too.

“I’m beginning to realise just how important the avocado industry is in New Zealand – it’s our third largest fresh fruit export!”

“It’s great to be back in the Bay and to be working in the avocado industry.”

Jodi’s role includes assisting Communications Manager Midge Munro with Objective 5 of NZ Avocado’s Primary Growth Partnership programme, which is the Information Portal, Knowledge Transfer and Adoption Project. Jodi also works on grower communications, as well as preparing for field days and other industry events and assisting with promotions.

Avocados rank as one of Jodi’s favourite foods and since she started her new role in April, she has been learning even

Her interests outside of work include arts and crafts and spending time with family and friends.

Industry Matters Early season domestic market maturity testing initiative 2015-16

Fruit must be both collected and tested by AgFirst to qualify for payment.

• Average dry matter content across a 10 fruit sample is at least 23% • Fruit must be ethylene ripened using the AIC Ethylene Ripening Protocol • Any fruit that averages 24% dry matter or greater will not need to be ethylene ripened

Payment period covers early season 2015-16 fruit that is collected and tested prior to 31 July 2015. The maturity requirements are:

To order your early season maturity test, please either contact your packhouse or log in to the Agfirst website using your log in details.

The AIC will pay the cost of AgFirst collection and testing for early season domestic market fruit that passes the domestic market maturity testing requirements.

Calendar of events NZAGA & AIC Board meetings • 13 August • 8 October

HortNZ Conference

NZAGA & AIC AGM

NZ Avocado Grower Forum

World Avocado Congress

27 - 29 July, Rotorua

26 August, Tauranga

26 August, Tauranga

13-18 September Lima, Peru www.wacperu2015.com

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How does your orchard performance compare?

Newsroom

NZ Avocado set the industry a number of five year goals as part of the Five Year Plan which was approved by the Board in 2012. When we looked at how we wanted to measure the achievement of those goals, we recognised we did not have a way of measuring the performance of our orchards over time. As we developed the business case for our Primary Growth Partnership, we included the development of what we now call our “orchard performance benchmarking”.

Growers were introduced to this at the NZ & AU Avocado Growers’ Conference in September 2013 where all grower delegates received a print-out of the orchard performance benchmarking chart with their data showing how they compared to the rest of the industry.

Before we are able to share this data, we need to make sure we have correct data about your orchard. The easiest way to do this is for you to provide us (contact details below) with

a copy of your final return from your packer/exporter for the 2014-15 season, as well as the 2013-14 season. In return we will send you a chart showing your orchard performance versus the industry.

Our objective is to develop best practice that is implemented by growers, which leads to improvements in orchard performance and productivity. We also want to measure how well we are meeting that objective. We hope that you too will be adopting best practise to increase your productivity in terms of yield and consistency.

For more information on this offer, please visit the news section on our industry website.

Email: info@nzavocado.co.nz Fax: 07 571 6145 Post: New Zealand Avocado, PO Box 13267,Tauranga 3141 Deliver in person: Level 5, Harrington House, 32 Harington Street,Tauranga

Fruit thefts - growers urged to be extra vigilant Growers are reminded to be extra vigilant throughout the next few months as we approach the period in the season where avocado theft from orchards traditionally increases.

If you see something – say something.

New Zealand Police recommend the following: • Be extra vigilant and take steps to prevent theft, including increasing security around your orchard.

• If you witness any suspicious behaviour contact your neighbouring orchards to ensure others are also keeping a look out.

If a theft takes place the New Zealand Police encourage reporting in all instances:

• If witnessed at the time of theft call the Police emergency line on 111 immediately. Try to take as many details as you can of the thieves including their appearance and any vehicles and vehicle registration numbers etc.

• If you discover fruit has been stolen but you did not witness the theft, contact your local police station.

• If you have had fruit stolen recently but have not yet reported it, contact your local police station.

If you are approached by anyone trying to sell car boot loads of avocados, take a description of the person and their vehicle registration and report the activity to your local police station.

BOPRC embarking on project to identify HAIL sites The Bay of Plenty Regional Council is about to embark on a project to identify land across the region that has been used for orcharding from the 1970s up to the present day.

This will include registering all current and past avocado orchard land on the regional council’s Selected Land Use

Register (SLUR) database. This database holds details of Hazardous Activity and Industry List (HAIL) sites.

The Hazardous Activities and Industries List (HAIL) is a compilation of activities and industries that are considered

Spotted anything unusual?

Early reporting of unusual insect pests or plant symptoms helps to protect the avocado industry.

Calls to MPI’s pest and disease hotline 0800 80 99 66 are confidential and ensure industry pests are discovered early before they spread.

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likely to cause land contamination resulting from hazardous substance use, storage or disposal. The HAIL is intended to identify most situations in New Zealand where hazardous substances could cause, and in many cases have caused, land contamination.

Whilst current orchard owners will not be impacted by the registration of their orchards on the SLUR, if in future the land use changes, an assessment of the lands suitability for its proposed new use will need to be undertaken.

The council intends to identify orchard land by viewing

Newsroom

The introduction of the National Environmental Standard (NES) for Assessing and Managing Contaminants in Soil to Protect Human Health applies to all land on the HAIL register. If there is to be a change of land use, the effects of any contaminants on human health will need to be assessed as part of the consent process. With the sub-division of orchard land into rural residential lifestyle blocks, soil sampling has shown that orchard soils (including avocado orchards) often contain contaminant levels elevated above natural background, or exceeding human health or environmental soil guideline standards.

current and archived aerial photographs of the region. The sites will be entered onto the SLUR database and located on the councils GIS mapping system. By August 2015 the council will write to all landowners whose land has been identified as a HAIL site, and the landowners will have the opportunity to confirm council information is correct or to show councils information is incorrect. All sites that are positively identified as current or past orchard land will then be confirmed as HAIL sites and the information becomes publically available, generally through the LIM process. We realise that many avocado orchards are spray free and would appreciate any information you may be able to provide about those sites.

Registration as a HAIL site does not label land as contaminated. However it does mean future change in land use will require investigation’s to be undertaken to assess potential contamination.

If you have any questions please phone Reece Irving (HAIL officer, Bay of Plenty Regional Council) on 0800 884 881 extension 8341. There is also further information and a list of frequently asked questions on the BOP Regional Council website www.boprc.govt.nz

Recommended reading

By Phillip West

El Nino event underway Some of you may have heard that an El Niño event is underway in the tropical Pacific. El Niño is a weakening of the trade winds and a rise in sea temperatures that can impact the weather patterns we experience here in New Zealand, as well as in Peru for those planning to attend the World Avocado Congress this year.

Generally during El Niño events New Zealand experiences more southerly winds during the winter, stronger and more frequent southwesterlies in spring and autumn, and stronger and more frequent westerly winds during the summer. It’s the westerly

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winds through the summer months that El Niño is probably best known for, as in some years these have contributed to drought conditions in more easterly parts of the country.

It’s important to note that drought conditions don’t occur every time El Niño is present and equally droughts can also occur when El Niño is not present. Georgina Griffiths from MetService has written a great article about El Niño in the June issue of The Orchardist.

More information relating to El Niño can be found on NIWA’s website at (www.niwa.co.nz/ourscience/climate/information-and-resources/clivar/ elnino#forecasting).

More up to date information about this current El Niño event can also be found on NIWA’s website in their Seasonal Climate Outlooks (www.niwa.co.nz/climate/sco)

Reading your trees Below are the key tree characteristics as set out in your Reading Your Trees Guide to assess at this time of year: • April to September: Flower buds, pages 6-8 Once your trees have been assessed, you will be ready to consider the suggested intervention strategies. At the bottom of each section in this guide there are a number of factors to consider to optimise your orchard management.

You will need to determine which is the best option for your own situation – if in doubt, seek specialist advice.

Download the Reading Your Trees workbook from the industry website under Resources > Orchard Management Guidelines This workbook complements the Reading Your Trees guide and allows you to record your assessments.

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Avocado news from the world China: Avocado imports up 400%, lemons & limes up 300%

Avocados shipped in from Mexico were now the fastest increasing item, said Mabel Zhuang, China consultant of the global fresh produce trade organisation, Produce Marketing Association.

Imports of avocados have increased annually by more than 400 per cent in the past three years, she said. Just behind avocados in rising popularity were lemons and limes, with yearon-year growth last year of more than 300 per cent, blueberries at 160 per cent and bananas at 140 per cent.

In contrast, mainland news has been filled with frequent reports about Chinese farmers having to throw away peaches and apples that they have been unable to sell.

Gary Zhu, co-founder of the fruit retail website, youguo.com, said Chinese consumers were now increasingly willing to pay for food safety and quality.

Newsroom

Longstanding fears over food safety standards on the mainland – including frequent reports of residue left on domestic fruit after the excessive use of pesticides and swelling and ripening agents – have led to a craze among China’s growing middle class for imported prime fruits in recent years.

He said a surge in China’s demand for prime fruits in the past five years had led to numerous kinds of fruits from all continents – except for the Antarctica – being shipped to the mainland.

Bananas from Ecuador, kiwis from New Zealand, and cherries from Chile are all flooding into the world’s second largest economy at a rapid rate.

Source: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/141370/ChinaAvocado-imports-up-400-procent,-lemons-and-limes-up-300-procent

USA: Monumental marketing campaign for Peruvian avocado season The Peruvian Avocado Commission (PAC) kicked off the 2015 season by serving a super food breakfast to the men and women on board the famed USS Cole Navy ship during Fleet Week in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. This salute-thetroops event was a first in the history of the avocado category and jump starts a powerful five-month long marketing campaign that includes high-profile events and sponsorships, increased trade and consumer advertising, an expanded menu of retailer support programs and more opportunities to engage directly with consumers through social media initiatives.

Building on the success of last year’s campaign, AFP’s 2015 marketing program is designed to whet consumer’s appetites for the nutrientdense super food and provide retailers with innovative incentives to prominently showcase

AFP in the produce aisle. “The 2015 campaign involves a variety of events and promotions similar to the breakfast served to the sailors on board the USS Cole that are firsts for the avocado category,” explained Xavier Equihua, President and Chief Executive Officer, PAC. “We want to reach consumers through a variety of media channels, constantly reminding them to make Avocados from Peru a part of their daily diet.”

The breakfast event on board the USS Cole, will be featured as a special July 4th segment on the nationally syndicated Mr. Food Test Kitchen show on July 1. The segment will air on more than 100 television stations across the country and reach millions of viewers.

Source: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/140925/USMonumental-marketing-campaign-for-avocado-season

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Newsroom

USA: Low-altitude images allow early detection of avocado disease Low-altitude aerial images can detect laurel wilt, a devastating avocado disease, giving growers an early way to identify diseased trees and perhaps help reduce losses to the $100 million-a-year economic impact avocados provide Florida.

the commercial avocado industry in Florida.

Ehsani said he expects the Federal Aviation Administration to open U.S. airspace for commercial use of unmanned aerial vehicles, which could be equipped with such cameras, by 2017.

Reza Ehsani, an associate professor in agricultural and biological engineering at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, used a multi-spectral camera that distinguishes between laurel wiltaffected trees and healthy ones.

“Ultimately, we think that small UAVs, equipped with the right multi-band camera, can be used for scouting for this disease, which could potentially be very cost-effective,” Ehsani said. “The results of this study will enable growers or service companies that use UAVs to detect this disease at an early stage.”

Images taken with the camera from a helicopter have significant implications in the management of this important disease and for

Source: http://www.agprofessional.com/news/low-altitude-imagesallow-early-detection-avocado-disease

Chile: New Chile-China agreement to promote avocado exports On 20 May, Chilean and Chinese authorities met in Santiago de Chile to negotiate an expansion in the export of Chilean products to the Chinese market.

Juan Enrique Lazo, general manager of the Hass Avocado Committee of Chile, welcomed the agreement and said that “as regards avocados, the most noteworthy aspect is the establishment of a 27.2 kilometre quarantine radius upon detection of a fruit fly outbreak in Chile, which should bring the end of quarantines in the Valparaiso and Metropolitan regions, which account for 80% of the production.” He adds that “avocados are

e Avosce Avoscen ne New Zeala

As for the new agreement signed with China and the potential that this may represent for Chilean exports, Juan is cautious and says that “there is still little experience when it comes to exporting avocados to China; last year, we only exported one container,” and adds that “due to the conditions that the avocados have to meet to maintain quality after 42 days of freight to China, we also don’t expect to ship much.”

Source: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/140701/New-ChileChina-agreement-to-promote-avocado-exports

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To book advertising space in the next issue of Avoscene please contact Suzy King at SunMedia Ltd. Booking deadline for the next issue is August 14th, 2015.

Contact Suzy on 07 578 0030 or 021 769 831 email suzy@thesun.co.nz

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New requirements for avocado exports to Thailand

By Brad Siebert, Biosecurity & Programme Manager, New Zealand Avocado

brad.siebert@nzavocado.co.nz

Thailand plans to implement new phytosanitary requirements for New Zealand avocados that may need to be implemented for the coming season.

On the Orchard

Growers - what does this mean for you?

• Having to sign a Thailand registration

New export requirements aim to provide Thailand

with further confidence in the avocado industry’s pest management programme AvoGreen. Growers, postharvest operators and exporters must be prepared to implement changes from 1 November 2015.

Overview

All growers whose fruit is being packed for Thailand will be required to be registered with MPI and be listed on the MPI website as compliant for packing fruit for Thailand.

Due to the wide range of horticulture groups in New Zealand having to meet the same requirements stated in the Importing Country Phytosanitary Requirements (ICPR) for Thailand, a guidance document was provided to individual industries to allow them to develop industry specific registration protocols. Over the past year Glenys Parton of New Zealand Avocado has consulted with MPI, AsureQuality, post-harvest and exporter groups to develop an industry response. MPI has accepted this will meet Thailand’s new requirements and that if industry can meet these new conditions, trade will continue uninterrupted.

form every year • Continuing to maintainpest monitoring and pest control activities • Ensuring pest monitoring records are always available for verification by MPI

The new requirements centre on growers having a comprehensive and documented pest monitoring and management programme and the need for growers and packers to register with MPI when exporting to Thailand.

Fortunately for the New Zealand avocado industry, the current AvoGreen production system will help deliver the required pest monitoring aspects of the programme, and industry registration processes will provide the mechanism to record agreement and declarations of compliance from growers.

What does it mean for growers?

All production sites planning to send fruit to Thailand must be registered with MPI prior to the commencement of the

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On the Orchard

Table 1

Common name

Scientific name

Agrichemicals registered for use on Avocado

Fuller’s rose beetle

Pantomorus cervinus

o o

Thiacloprid Broad spectrum insecticides

Chinese wax scale

Ceroplastes sinensis

Greedy scale

Hemiberlesia rapax

o o o o o

Carbaryl Diazinon Chlorpyrifos Mineral oils Permethrin + pirimiphos-methyl

Dusky leafroller

Capua intractana

Brownheaded leafroller

Ctenopseustis obliquana

Light brown apple moth

Epiphyas postvittana

Orchard leafroller

Planotortrix excessana

o o o o o o o o o o o

Bacillus thuringiensis Carbaryl Chlorantraniliprole Chlorpyrifos Diazinon Emamectin benzoate Permethrin + pirimiphos-methyl Spinosad Taufluvalinate Tebufenozide methoxyfenozide

production season. Due to the extended and overlapping nature of the growing and harvesting season of avocado, the annual registration will cover fruit being picked and exported in the following season. Therefore, the process for obtaining this agreement and declaration from the Grower will commence on 1 July each year and be valid for the crop of the season ahead. Thereby the signing of the document from 1 July to 31 October (year 0) will cover the production and harvest period of 18 months going forward from 1 November (year 1) to 30 May (year 2).

Prior to 1 November each year (the beginning of the avocado production season) each grower will be required to complete and return an application for registration, and sign a declaration which sets out the grower’s obligations (Table 2). The registration process must be completed as part of the Packer-Grower contract and must occur every year regardless of crop.

To meet Thailand’s export requirements, growers must maintain a pest monitoring and control programme for the pests of concern to Thailand. To achieve this, growers must maintain AvoGreen compliance throughout the production season and keep on file all evidence of AvoGreen monitoring results. Maintaining accurate and documented records of pest monitoring and pest control activities is essential as these must always be available for verification

by MPI. Growers can easily achieve the requirements set out in the Thailand programme by closely following the existing AvoGreen protocols that already require the recording of pest monitoring activities. Growers may wish to consider employing an AvoGreen Registered Operator to monitor their orchards to ensure they meet AvoGreen conditions. This has the added advantage of knowing you have an independent professionally trained pest monitor on site that will maintain auditable monitoring records for

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your property. A list of AvoGreen Operators is maintained on the AIC website.

The Avocado Pests identified as a concern by Thailand are listed in Table 1 above. Current pest monitoring through AvoGreen practices and subsequent control activities already target these seven common industry pests. The NZ Avocado grower’s manual found on the NZ Avocado website provides further information on these pests and their management.

What does it mean for Postharvest Operators?

Packhouses wanting to pack avocados for export to Thailand must be MPI approved organisations (MAOs) and now they must also be specifically registered with MPI if exporting to Thailand. The registration for export to Thailand will be integrated into the annual packhouse export registration through AIC. After receiving all registrations, AIC will provide MPI and relevant IVAs with a list of packhouses applying to be registered so that pre-season audits can be completed and approved MAO facilities listed on the MPI website.

To be compliant, all MAOs must update their Documented Quality System (DQS) or Documented Organisation System (DOS) to include the packhouse and grower registration procedure and how they plan to meet the requirements of the ICPR for Thailand. NZ Avocado will work closely with the post-harvest sector to ensure this process is clear and to assist where required.

An essential responsibility of the packhouse is to maintain records of production sites supplying fruit so that these are available to MPI on request. Packhouses will need to adjust their systems to be able to verify that fruit is only received

Table 2

Below are the main points that both growers and packers will be agreeing to in the Thailand declaration document: In return for MPI accepting my application for registration;

A. I agree to comply with all the relevant requirements that will be specified in the Importing Countries Phytosanitary Requirements (ICPR) for Thailand.

These requirements will be published following the finalisation of the Thailand Conditions for Import.

B. (Grower) I agree to maintain records of pest monitoring and pest control activities and have these available to MPI on request.

C. I consent to publication of my registration status in any publication, which may be made available to the public.

from Thailand registered production sites and that all growers have completed the required declarations.

Once a grower completes the Thailand declaration, the signed form must be filed and a list of growers should be provided to the AIC within seven working days from 1 November each year. To confirm export eligibility, the AIC will forward the list of these eligible PPIN numbers to be made available on the MPI website.

Most packaging, labelling and certification requirements are similar to existing industry packaging requirements, with the major addition of requirements for specifically labelling pallets and cartons. All packhouses must ensure they are familiar with their obligations. The Thailand Department of Agriculture may opt to visit New Zealand to audit the industry against the new requirements, so it is imperative that the industry is keeping accurate records of how we are implementing these new arrangements.

The new requirements principally focus on orchard pest management and post-harvest controls so the existing end-point phytosanitary inspection requirements remain largely unchanged. Therefore, as with all past export consignments, fruit will continue to be inspected at

D. (Packhouse) I agree to afford MPI and the IVA, or their representative’s co-operation and access necessary to carry out audits and trace back investigations in relation to registered participation in exports to Thailand.

E. I understand that if I fail to provide all or any of the information requested in connection with exports to Thailand I may be removed from registered participation in exports to Thailand.

On the Orchard

B. (Packhouse) I agree to the IVA, on behalf of MPI, making enquiries and using the information supplied by me in connection with export to Thailand, and to audit my compliance with the requirements for export to Thailand.

D. (Grower) I agree to afford MPI and the IVA(s) of the packhouse(s) I supply to, or their representatives, cooperation and access necessary to carry out trace back investigations in relation to registered participation in exports to Thailand.

F. I agree to notify the relevant industry body or IVA of any changes to the above details.

G. I agree that if there are any changes to the final Thailand Conditions for Import then MPI reserves the right to amend the conditions of this agreement and will provide a copy of the amended agreement.

the packhouse in accordance with MPI’s Plant Export Certification Standards to ensure it is free from regulated quarantine pests prior to export. Phytosanitary inspectors at the packhouse will also need to confirm that fruit being cleared has only been sourced from Thailand registered production sites.

Grower and postharvest declarations

A key aspect of the industry registration procedures is having both growers and packhouses read and agree to a declaration of compliance every export season. The AIC already uses a mandatory web-based registration process for growers, packhouse and exporters in order to be eligible to export avocados. AIC will collate all Thailand registrations and provide details to MPI on a regular basis.

Packers will then be required to verify export eligibility by matching consignments with eligible PPINs listed on the MPI website.

It has been agreed that the packhouse will manage the process of grower registration and declarations by integrating this into the established process of PackerGrower contracts. This would allow the grower to sign the declaration and become registered for Thailand as they sign their packing contract.

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PGP canopy management strategies: a collaborative approach

Alvaro Vidiella, R&D Manager, New Zealand Avocado alvaro.vidiella@nzavocado.co.nz

The last issue of Avoscene introduced some of the working groups and collaborations that have been established to implement NZ Avocado’s R&D programme. The purpose of the canopy management strategies working group is described here in further detail.

There are growers, contractors and consultants who have

been experimenting with canopy management strategies for a number of years. Over time and through trial and error they have developed systems that seem to work for their situation, and in most cases they are happy to share their expertise.

The Canopy Management Strategies Working Groups, along with all other PGP working groups, involve scientific expertise from NZ Avocado and Plant & Food Research and practical expertise from growers and rural professionals.

Canopy management strategies that have been developed by industry professionals will be compared by the working groups in commercial orchards in three different regions; Bay of Plenty, Whangarei, and the Far North. The influence of these canopy management strategies on the productivity of the orchards will be determined in order to develop best practice guidelines. The impact of implementing this best practice will be estimated in commercial terms.

In order to do this, a group of members of the working group held a workshop with the objective of describing the canopy management strategies developed by one of the contractors that participates in the working group. A template will be developed that can be used with the rest of the canopy management strategies that will be surveyed.

On the Orchard

PGP Canopy Management Strategies Working Groups

this is the first time that this type of survey has been carried out, the initial goal has been to develop the survey method.

The result of this initial workshop was further discussed with all members of the group in the field at a second workshop, and the method’s description was validated by the group.

The result of this second workshop was a description of the method and video explanations that can be viewed on the industry website www.nzavocado.co.nz/industry > Orchard Mngt > Canopy management The process developed to describe the methods will be applied to other methods in the BOP shortly and the most promising ones will be selected to be evaluated in commercial conditions.

The work of the group is divided into these steps: 1. Identification of the canopy management strategies 2. Description of canopy management strategies 3. Selection of most promising canopy management strategies 4. Evaluation of the canopy management strategies 5. Definition of best practice guidelines Bay of Plenty Canopy Management Working Group

A working group was established in early 2015 in the Bay of Plenty. This group involves growers, contractors, consultants and scientists that have been heavily involved in canopy management. The objective of the group is to identify, describe and monitor different canopy management strategies to evaluate their performance in BOP conditions.

The group is currently developing a standard method to describe the different strategies available.

Survey

A survey of the industry to identify available canopy management strategies will be carried out by the group. As

Canopy management working group member, Mike Dillon, explaining his pruning method to the rest of the group.

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Tree Decline – How do good growers get better?

Phillip West, R&D Officer, New Zealand Avocado phillip.west@nzavocado.co.nz and Alvaro Vidiella, R&D Manager, New Zealand Avocado alvaro.vidiella@nzavocado.co.nz

Tree decline is a worldwide issue for commercial avocado producers, impacting annual production and the lifespan of trees. Production in New Zealand is no exception. A group of growers from the Far North have identified tree decline as one of the main challenges to the performance of their orchards and are now tackling it through the New Zealand Avocados Go Global PGP programme.

Mitigation of tree decline requires ongoing investment

and active management to control. Tree decline unmanaged impacts heavily on returns to growers.

On the Orchard

While the Far North region doesn’t suffer from issues such as frost and irregular fruit set to the same extent as other regions, tree decline is an issue shared by all growing regions in New Zealand.

A group of growers in the Far North felt tree decline was a growing concern despite their best efforts to manage it, which resulted in them welcoming a collaborative approach from NZ Avocado to try and address it. Those involved in this group are successful growers who are keen to extend their knowledge base while sharing with other growers their experience and what they learn along the way.

By taking the time to look more closely into different factors present in their orchards, these growers have identified areas where improvements can be made to help them improve the overall health and productivity of their orchards. These factors are phosphorous acid use, soil moisture and biotic factors.

The activity the group is undertaking is divided into three main stages; diagnosis, implementation of remedial actions, and monitoring the effect of the actions.

The diagnosis stage of the work is close to completion, with some remedial actions already being undertaken.

One of the main objectives of the project is to develop best practice guidelines that can be used by growers to assess the drivers of tree decline in their orchards.

Each growing region in New Zealand has distinct soil and environmental characteristics that present challenges to growing avocados successfully. To ensure region-specific factors influencing tree decline are identified, working groups are planned to be established in all the main growing regions of New Zealand. The working groups will look at what environmental, biotic and management factors are contributing to tree decline and what can be done to improve orchard health.

The Far North group is the first to be established, with significant effort being put into developing tools and techniques that can be transferred to other regions. Growers make up the majority of the working group with scientific support provided by NZ Avocado.

The working group has taken a “back to basics” approach to re-examine what conditions are present in the orchard, how current management activities may be contributing to tree decline, and where improvements can be made. Several areas have been identified where changes are expected to result in improved orchard health and better production for the growers.

Phosphorous acid use

AlvaroVidiella and Ian Fulton with Monty and Sally Hine at their orchard during the early stages of the working group.

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The introduction of phosphonate application has gone a long way to controlling tree decline caused by Phytophthora.

With it being a widespread problem in New Zealand, it’s easy to blame many cases of tree decline on Phytophthora with the answer being to apply phosphonate to treat the

tree. This is an over-simplification, as in a lot of cases there are other reasons for the decline of a tree’s health, many of which will not be helped by use of phosphonate.

As Phytophthora is a major problem in New Zealand, it is recommended that root phosphorous acid levels are maintained to provide a level of ongoing protection to trees.

There are different approaches to the use of phosphonate around the world but it is generally accepted that levels need to be maintained above approximately 25mg/kg of roots to provide protection.

The experience of the growers from the Far North working group highlighted the diversity of application methods as well as application rates. More work is required before making any comment about whether one application method is better than another but what was very useful was re-establishing a root testing regime where growers were able to assess whether their current practice was sufficient to maintain effective levels of phosphorous acid in the roots.

The growers that did regularly test had sufficient levels because they were able to adjust their practices to maintain concentrations based on the information the tests provided them.

Root test results carried out following autumn injections revealed several growers that did not regularly test had quite low levels. Some of the reasons the growers had stopped testing included that previous tests had given them confidence that they were maintaining levels, so regular tests were thought to provide little additional value, and also that root test results were difficult to interpret which meant growers had lost confidence in the tool.

The fact the testing has been done in all orchards following a standard procedure has shown results that have “made sense” and the group has gained confidence in the tool. The growers which had the low results have decided to adjust their injection method and to repeat the root tests to ensure the application has been successful.

One possible explanation for the irregular test results experienced by some growers is that the injection sites may be too far apart, leading to sections of roots not receiving

On the Orchard

It is unclear what the most important mode of action phosphorous acid has on protecting the tree, but it is likely to be a combination of direct fungicidal effect and stimulation of the tree’s own immune response.

Grower Tony Payton clearing one of his sprinklers to restore coverage.

any phosphorous acid. Phosphorous acid does not spread laterally very far from the injection site, so if injection sites are too far apart this can cause gaps. The results of any tests can then be strongly dependent on where the roots are collected from. If the root sample is predominantly from a section that has received the benefit of the injection, the results will be high. If the roots are taken from a gap between injection sites, the results could be very low.

Reduction, or decay, of phosphorous acid levels in the roots are dependent on a lot of different factors including leaf shed and other sinks on the tree in terms of growing shoots or fruit. Heavy crop load on a tree can significantly reduce the concentration of phosphorous acid in the roots. Due to the impact of these different factors, it’s very difficult to predict root concentrations based on the injection practice alone, highlighting the importance of regular testing.

One grower was quite surprised they had levels in their sick trees that were the highest of the group. Talking to another grower, their experience was that they had been injecting sick trees heavily year on year assuming because they were sick, injecting would help. When they finally did some root testing, the levels were sky high and the grower suspected the levels may have been phytotoxic, implying that injecting may have been doing more harm than good. The take away message is that if you don’t know how effective your application method is, then you can’t do anything to improve the situation.

We will track how the changes made by the growers will affect the tree health, giving us information about the importance of maintaining appropriate root phosphorous acid levels. We also plan to establish a schedule of root

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However, what may be less well understood is that avocado roots require high levels of gas exchange and can be effectively suffocated by soils that are too wet. On the other side of the equation is very dry soils can also damage roots.

On the Orchard

The Far North has a challenging soil to work with in terms of managing soil moisture.Yes, it’s generally very sandy, which can help with drainage. However if pans are present, water can sit on these pans, creating a wet area above them.

The sandy nature of the soil and its limited depth also means there is a relatively narrow range of available water to the trees. Available water is the portion of water in the soil that a tree or plant can access and use. Sandy soils generally aren’t the best at storing water, but orchards can still have areas of excessive soil moisture due to poor drainage, compaction, lack of soil structure, shallow water table, topography or differences in soil type.

Members of the Far North tree decline working group investigating soil characteristics in a sick area of an orchard.

testing on some orchards to develop a decay curve of phosphorous acid concentrations throughout the year. This will provide additional information about the factors that influence root phosphorous acid levels in New Zealand.

We believe the information would also provide a valuable resource that growers could use to help interpret their own root test results at different times of the year, allowing them to forecast how long protective levels might be maintained and when additional injections would be required.

Soil moisture

The relationship between excessively wet soils and Phytophthora infection is a reasonably well understood one within the industry. Phytophthora zoospores are motile and travel through liquid water to infect new roots. If soils are very wet then any Phytophthora infection can spread and increase in severity. Damaged roots are an important part of this process also, with the zoospores homing in on the chemical signals given off by damaged roots.

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Most orchards in the Far North have irrigation systems to allow soil moisture to be managed. This is definitely helpful but the question presents itself; what is the best irrigation strategy for my orchard? If you think of managing soil moisture in the Bay of Plenty as walking along a reasonably wide piece of solid wood (even if Mother Nature comes along and gives it a good shake from time to time), I would think of trying to manage soil moisture in the Far North as walking along a tight rope. The margin for too much or too little is much closer than in other growing regions.

Visually, some of the working group members had areas of their orchards that were prone to water logging or excess soil moisture. These areas were generally at the bottom of slopes and invariably had poor tree health associated with them. This is something orchards in other growing regions also deal with.

Portable soil moisture monitoring equipment was supplied to the growers, who then used them to better understand the variability in soil moisture around their orchards. Fixed soil moisture monitoring equipment was then installed on two of the orchards in an area that was identified as problematic, to log soil moisture levels at regular intervals through the irrigation period. An understanding of the soil characteristics was also important in interpreting these results. Following this process many growers felt more confident in making decisions regarding drainage works and irrigation management.

A key message coming out of this analysis was the importance of managing irrigation at a tree level rather than a block or

large areas of dry soil with mats of dead roots supported this hypothesis. Pump pressure and existing irrigation infrastructure presents challenges to making changes in sprinkler spread, which also sometimes require significant investment. The working group explored different types of sprinkler heads that have wider coverage and apply similar amounts of water, with some showing good potential. These sprinkler heads will be initially trialled this coming summer.

The same is true for recently pruned trees. Less canopy volume means less water use by the tree and if not adjusted for irrigating, the soil can become excessively wet. Many of the working group growers had already adjusted sprinkler heads to tailor the water being delivered to certain trees, but this work highlighted the importance of this and further changes were made following a more detailed assessment.

While maintaining a soil moisture regime that supports the development of healthy roots is a bit of a balancing act, it all starts with a basic understanding of the variability present in your orchard. It’s only by understanding the range of soil moistures present in your orchard at different times of year that questions can start to be asked about the potential benefit of irrigation or drainage works.

Further investigation of the irrigation systems used by the working group members revealed many of them did not have very good sprinkler coverage, particularly those with large trees. Some irrigation set-ups covered as little as 30-40% of the soil explored by the tree. Again, sandy soils present a challenge in that there is likely limited lateral spread of the irrigation being applied. This means areas of roots are likely not to be receiving adequate water, while other areas of roots may be receiving too much.

A wide range of soil moisture monitoring equipment, both portable and fixed, are now available to growers. Some of this equipment is being used by the working group and will provide valuable information about how some of the technologies can help growers.

Irrigation is mainly required through the hotter summer months, meaning the rest of the year the tree roots have sufficient soil moisture to explore a larger volume of soil. We know avocado trees are capable of having root systems that expand well outside their drip lines. Then when drier weather arrives, the feeder roots in the volume of soil not covered by the irrigation dry up and die. Towards the end of the summer,

On the Orchard

orchard level. Sick trees transpire less, have root systems that are less functional and use less water. If a block is irrigated to cater for the healthy trees only, then the soil gets wetter and wetter under the sick trees through each subsequent irrigation cycle. This leads to further decline in the tree’s health, meaning it needs less water and the soil gets even wetter. This can lead to a spiralling deterioration in the health of the tree.

Biotic factors

Pathogens are another potential cause for declining tree health, with Phytophthora most likely the predominant problem. Root and soil testing is currently underway to investigate what pathogens are present in the different orchards to help complete the picture of what is contributing to the poor health of some of the trees. Options to enlist expertise to more thoroughly investigate the biotic factors contributing to poor avocado tree health across all the major growing regions is currently being explored. Soil microbial ecology is a very complex system to understand and the working group has recognised the need for additional expertise in this area.

Taking the time to investigate their orchards in a more detailed and collaborative way while also sharing information within the working group, has revealed several opportunities to improve management practices in each one of the orchards.

Installing soil moisture monitoring equipment in a sick area of one of the orchards.

The orchards involved in this work will continue to be monitored by the working group, with any lessons learnt shared with the rest of the industry. As similar working groups are established in the other main growing regions, it will be exciting to see what we can collectively come up with to increase the health of our orchards.

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Avoscene July 2015

Irrigation requirements for avocado Teruko Kaneko and Mike Clearwater, School of Science, University of Waikato

m.clearwater@waikato.ac.nz

Plant & Food Research, NZ Avocado, and the University of Waikato are working together to investigate the effects of water stress on avocado flowering and fruit set, and monitor tree water use. Ultimately this project aims to develop guidelines for irrigation of avocados under New Zealand conditions.

On the Orchard

Fig. 1 Rain-out shelters and the meteorological station installed around young flowering avocado trees in the orchard in Katikati, the Bay of Plenty.

Many growers believe that irrigation of avocado is

important, particularly in summer when it is hotter and drier, and in spring when flowering and early fruit-set may cause stress. However, we do not actually know how much water avocado trees require for the optimum fruit production. Exactly what happens if irrigation is not used, and the trees experience water stress at critical times, like flowering?

Background

A team from Plant & Food Research, NZ Avocado, and the University of Waikato have been investigating the effects of water stress on avocado flowering and fruit set, and monitoring actual tree water use, with the ultimate goal of developing guidelines for irrigation under New Zealand conditions. The project is based on an orchard in Katikati, and includes the installation of a meteorological station so that tree water use and stress levels can be compared with standard estimates of EvapoTranspiration (ETo). The project is funded by the MBIE Avocados for Export Programme.

The rainout experiment

The effects of water stress are best examined by imposing drought conditions on the trees, so the team set up a ‘rainout’ experiment. For this project 10 young (ca. 3 years) trees were selected – 5 watered and 5 non-watered trees. Rainout shelters (4.2 x 4.9 m) were installed over the root zone of the non-watered trees (Fig. 1). From October 2014 to

April 2015, the watered trees received normal rainfall and were well irrigated during dry periods, whereas the nonwatered trees received neither rainfall nor irrigation. Soil moisture and temperature were recorded every hour using dataloggers, and levels of tree water stress were monitored by measuring leaf and stem water potentials using a pressure chamber. Flower opening behaviour and flower drop were recorded during the flowering period in October and November, and from December fruit drop and fruit growth have been monitored regularly.

Compared with the watered trees, the soil water content under the non-watered trees gradually declined over time (Fig. 3 overleaf). The rainout shelters also caused lower leaf and stem water potentials, although these differences were only slight. Overall there was no effect of water exclusion on flower opening behaviour and flower or fruit drop, but later in the experiment we have begun to observe a clear reduction in fruit growth. This effect will be reported on once the current growing season is complete.

Even though the rainout shelters were in place for more than 6 months, surprisingly these trees showed only moderate signs of water stress. Initial soil water contents were high, and by flowering the soil had probably not yet become dry enough to have much impact. We also suspect that the trees were able to obtain water from surrounding or deeper soil, and that the rainout shelters were not sufficiently watertight to prevent all rain water from reaching the root zones

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water use under non-stressed conditions.

Fig. 2 Heat pulse sap flow gauges (a heater and two temperature probes) installed in a young avocado tree.

of the treated plants. We are currently planning to repeat the experiment, with modified shelters and by imposing the treatments earlier.

The sap flow experiment On the Orchard

The team has also begun a long term project to quantify the amount of water used by avocado trees using sap flow measurements. The sap flow technique is a plant-based water use indicator that measures the flow of water through the sapwood, making it possible to estimate actual tree transpiration. The ‘compensation heat-pulse velocity’ method used in this project involves two temperature probes inserted into the stem above and below a heater probe (Fig 2), with all three connected to a datalogger. Sap ‘velocity’ is measured by applying a 3 second heat pulse every half an hour, and monitoring temperature changes following the pulse. For this project, sap flow probes were installed into 3 mature (ca. 9 years) and 3 young (ca. 3 years) trees, with monitoring starting in November 2014.

The trees were kept well irrigated, so that we can observe

The sap flow measurements show that tree water use typically peaks around the middle of the day, and that water use per tree is higher in mature trees than smaller young trees, as expected (Fig. 4). Water use also varies with the weather, in parallel with reference ETo, the standard weather based estimate of transpiration by a grass crop. Over a three month period, tree water use clearly fluctuates with daily estimates of ETo, but is always significantly less than the reference amount (Fig. 4). These results have yet to be finalised, based on additional measurements of tree sapwood area. However, they provide an indication that the crop factor (Kc), or ratio of tree water use to reference ETo, is about 0.5, but is likely to vary seasonally. A goal of this part of the project is to produce a table that shows how Kc varies throughout the year.

Next steps

The basic field measurements (meteorological, soil moisture, soil temperature, and sap flow) are on-going. Fruit growth will be monitored until harvest. The rainout experiment will be improved for reapplication prior to the next spring flowering season. Tree water use relative to ETo will be monitored for at least a year. At the end of the project guidelines for irrigation of avocado under New Zealand conditions will be developed.

Fig. 3 Vertical soil moisture profiles of watered (a) and non-watered (b) trees, from October 2014 to April 2015.The probes were positioned half way between the trunk and the edge of the canopy (60 cm from the tree).The lines show soil moisture at three depths of 0-30, 31-60 and 61-90 cm. Soil moisture fluctuated beneath the watered tree in response to precipitation and irrigation, particularly in the upper two layers.

Fig. 4 Examples of sap flow estimates of water use by mature and young trees, along with estimated ETo; (a) Hourly water use per tree and hourly ETo on typical days in February 2015, (b) daily ETo and evapotranspiration by the orchard (both in mm) from January to March 2015.

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Avoscene July 2015

Pest and disease watch: Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer Attacking the trees vascular tissue, the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer is a pest that is causing havoc throughout the Californian avocado industry. Here is a guide on what to look for and how to treat this pest.

On the Orchard

Photograph by Akif Eskalen.

What is the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer?

The Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer (PSHB), Euwallacea sp., is an invasive beetle that originated in Southeast Asia and is now causing significant impacts throughout California’s avocado industry. The beetle vectors three fungi: Fusarium euwallaceae, Graphium sp., and Acremonium sp. Adult females attack avocado by tunnelling into the tree to lay their eggs and grow the fungus. Both adults and larvae feed on this fungus, which spreads from the galleries to attack the tree’s vascular tissue.

are white and are restricted to the galleries created by the adult.

What should I look for?

The rapid spread of the main fungus (Fusarium euwallaceae) through the tree causes a disease in avocados called Fusarium Dieback. This disease interrupts the transport of water and nutrients which can lead to branch dieback and entire tree death.

Look out for any damage caused by wood-boring beetles, specifically entry/exit holes surrounded by wet discoloration or white exudate. The beetle’s holes penetrate 1-4 cm into the wood, leaving mounds of compacted white sawdust and wet staining on the main stem or branches, which is often the most obvious symptom. Removing/ scraping sections of bark below these areas will reveal very small bore holes with surrounding dead/discoloured tissue.

Initial trunk infection is followed by wilting of branches and discolouration of leaves, wilting and the collapse of heavily bearing branches. Significant impacts such as branch dieback may start to appear within 6 months of attack.

Are there other exotic beetles that are similar?

How does the beetle and fungus spread?

Yes, the Redbay ambrosia beetle (Xyleborus glabratus) currently impacting the Florida’s avocado industry is a very similar looking beetle that carries the lethal fungus Laurel Wilt (Raffaelea lauricola). There are also a range of other ambrosia beetle species and associated fungal pathogens that can cause near identical symptoms.

The Fusarium fungus is only spread by the beetle vector which flies from tree to tree, and by human-assisted movement of affected wood. Beetle dispersal will be heavily influenced by people and equipment movements, wind direction and the proximity of adjacent trees. Spread over considerable distance will be through the mechanical movement of infested wood, plant material or equipment.

What does the Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer look like?

Who can I call?

Adult females are black in colour, about the size of a sesame seed, and slightly larger than the flightless brown-coloured males. They are cylinder-shaped beetles that are rarely seen except for the tell-tale entry/exit holes they create in tree branches. Immature stages (eggs, larvae and pupae)

Any unusual plant symptoms or plant pests you have noticed on your orchard should be reported to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) on 0800 80 99 66 info@mpi.govt.nz or by contacting NZ Avocado 07 571 6147.

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Avoscene July 2015

Guidelines for spraying avocados

By Bill May, Spray-Tec Consultants Ltd. bill@spraytech.co.nz

Following on from the article in the May issue of AvoScene – “Choosing and using sprays”, the next consideration is spray preparation, equipment and application.

There are several factors to consider when spraying

avocado trees.

On the Orchard

• Size of the trees • Density of the foliage • Sprayer type and features • Dilute or concentrate spraying • Mixing • Agitation Size of the trees and density of the foliage will dictate how much spray is required per tree.

It is important to achieve adequate coverage of the target – whatever that may be. Typically the hardest targets to hit are the pests harboured in clusters of fruit in the upper canopy of the tree. From experience about 60% of the spray should go into the top quarter to one third of the tree. Even if there is over-spray in this region, the run-off will drip down through the tree and wet the lower canopy.

How much spray is required per tree?

For insecticides/fungicides the label usually states, “Spray to the point of run-off ”. A good way to see if adequate coverage is being achieved is to use water-sensitive paper.

These can be placed on poles, and raised up into the tree, then after a pass with the sprayer, check for coverage. If the papers in the lower canopy are completely blue, there has been run-off and this spray will be wasted. Ideally the papers should show small droplets close together, which indicates it would be difficult for the target pest to avoid contact.

Following the above establishes a spray rate that achieves satisfactory coverage per tree. For example, if the tree was 10m high, for “dilute” spraying, up to 30 litres per tree may be required. A description of “dilute” versus “concentrate” spraying is covered later in this article. Please note that there has been no suggestion of a rate in litres per hectare. This is because the litres/ha will depend on the row spacing of the trees. For example if the trees are 5 metres high and spray application is 9 litres per tree then the following two scenarios could occur. If the rows are

Trial spraying with a purpose-built avocado sprayer

spaced at 7 metres apart, and the speed is 3.2km/hr, the application rate per hectare would be 2700 litres. If your neighbour has the same shape/size trees and uses the same speed and litres per tree but the row spacing is 14m (half the trees per hectare of your block) then the rate per hectare would be halved to 1350 litres. So the term Application Rate per Hectare does not effectively reflect the amount of spray applied to the foliage contained in the block.

Rather than focus on application rate as litres per hectare, I would suggest the Avocado industry introduces the concept of expressing the rate as litres per 100m travelled. When considering litres per 100 metres travelled, the larger the tree - or greater density of foliage, the more litres required per 100 metres. So it doesn’t matter if the trees are in 6m or 12m rows. If the foliage/size (target) is the same, the litres/100m will be the same.

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Sprayer type and features

The next consideration is the type of sprayer that is used.

Is it a straight gun-type sprayer, or an airblast sprayer?

In considering the most common sprayer – the airblast sprayer - the following information is important: • What size fan does it have?

• Does it have straightening vanes?

• Does it have a volute?

• What horsepower does the tractor have?

• What useful gears do you have?

• How many nozzles to you have to choose from?

On the Orchard

Whilst this article is not a comprehensive calibration guideline, one of the most important factors to consider is the travel speed. Travel speed will be primarily dictated by the height/density of the tree and the size/pitch of the fan.

For example, for large trees, if the spray unit has a 920mm fan set at high pitch, in the high fan speed ratio, the travel rate should be no more than 3.5km/hr. This is to allow the fan time to displace the “dead” air in the tree with sprayladen air.

If you are using massotti guns fitted to a volute, these produce large droplets in a narrow stream, which have good momentum (think of the adjustable nozzle on a garden hose) to help propel the spray into the upper reaches of the trees.

The tips/cores fitted to the nozzle galleries of most airblast sprayers produce smaller droplets, and in a wider stream, which require more air assistance to get them to the target.

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Check to see if the spray is getting to the tops of the trees by observing the spray plume. To do this visually, get the spray operator to spray in the chosen gear and follow behind with the spray unit between you and the sun. Water sensitive paper can also be used to check this.

Dilute vs concentrate spraying

If a sprayer fitted with a volute is used and large trees are being sprayed, up to 150 litres of spray per 100 metres may be required to wet the foliage to the point of run-off.

This “point of run-off ” is termed “Dilute” spraying. On a 10 metre row spacing and travelling at 3.3km/hr, this equates to around 3000 l/ha. If the label advises 100mls of product per 100 litres water this equates to 150mls of product per 100 metres. If a large orchard is being sprayed or water is in short supply and spraying is undertaken in low wind conditions “Concentrate” spraying can be considered. In trial work undertaken over a number of years it has been determined that three times “Concentrate” spray can deliver excellent results.

However, a “super-spreader”, such as Du-Wett™ must be used to enhance the coverage*. If using a spray at three times concentrate, the application will be 50 litres of spray per 100m. That is, one third of the application rate, but the recommended rate of product to the area treated must still be applied. For the example above of 150mls per 100m then three times the amount of product will need to be added to the tank (300 mls product per 100 litres of water) than would be needed for a “dilute” application.

*Caution is advised that the use of super spreaders may affect the residue decay rate of the pesticide and consequently the withholding period required to achieve an MRL. The label of some products clearly state that the use of mineral oils with the product is not allowed.

Mixing

Mixing procedures

On the Orchard

When adding the measured amounts of agrichemicals: • Check the label for special procedures • Fill the tank with about half the amount of water required • Start tank agitation • Add any insoluble materials – wettable powders, granules, then suspensions • Add soluble materials • Add emulsions • Add any adjuvants or oils* Top up tank to required level with water Add any chemicals that cause foaming when the tank is nearly full Agitation

It is most essential that the tank mixture has continual adequate agitation at all times. If your sprayer is fitted with mixing venturis – make sure they are working! If you rely on the bypass for agitation, make sure it flows into the lower section of the tank.

Older model sprayer with “guns” attached doing a good job – while it is calm.

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WE DO

FLEXIBLE

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Avoscene July 2015

Thailand: no room for complacency Elaine Fisher, Journalist, SunMedia

elaine@thesun.co.nz

Thailand, currently its sixth largest market, offers significant potential for the New Zealand avocado industry but is not without its challenges, especially as other players are poised to enter the market.

Markets

AVANZA carried out more than 650 in-store sampling days in Thailand retail stores last season.

As Thailand opens for more countries such as Peru and

Chile, there will be pressure on New Zealand fruit says Lesley Shield of JP Exports. “This can be overcome by taking the initiative with marketing programmes.”

Carwyn Williams of AVANZA agrees: “New Zealand is currently the only country that has legal access to Thailand for avocados. We need to make the most of this situation and build a strong consumer following for New Zealand avocados. We need to build on our quality, safe food, superior marketing and branding and even better customer support.”

Te Mata Exports shipped only small volumes of fruit to Thailand this season but product manager Andy Thompson says opportunities have increased significantly since Australia’s access was shut out.

“Knowledge of the product is increasing all the time but

there is more educational work to be done, as in most Asian markets.”

Jarrod Redwood of Freshmax says Thailand is an exciting new market for New Zealand but not one to take for granted, so high standards of fruit quality and service are essential.

“This season went well in Thailand, which is a good early start market with consistent demand throughout the season.”

Growing pains

Fruit sold well and demand was strong. Jarrod says there is a need to improve handling and the cool chain over the next 12 to 24 months.

“Those in the market know how to handle avocados but need support in the management of large volumes. As

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“This last season we also undertook more than 650 in-store sampling days with key retail accounts and participated in the ‘Taste New Zealand’ food event co-promoted with NZTE and Tesco Lotus.”

Freshmax’s marketing programme targeted wholesale, retail and food service sectors.

“The New Zealand industry and exporters both have an important part to play in assisting the market to increase understanding of New Zealand avocados and guidelines to achieve the best from the fruit.

AVANZA participated in the ‘Taste New Zealand’ food event in Thailand, co-promoted with NZTE and Tesco Lotus.

with any new market, there were a few growing pains this season but nothing which cannot be overcome.

Markets

“It is important that the market hears a consistent message and is not receiving contradictory information and thankfully that’s not happening.”

Te Mata’s fruit was sold through wholesale channels so the company hasn’t carried out any promotional activity in store, says Andy.

“Awareness and popularity of avocados continues to grow in this market. There is still plenty of marketing and promotional work to be done to increase the avocado share of consumer spend in Thailand.”

“This season volumes of air and sea freight fruit increased, putting pressure on a market which is not completely familiar with New Zealand protocols and how and when to use and choose fruit,” says Jarrod.

Andy says traditionally the Thai market has only taken 28 count or 30 count fruit but believes this is mainly due to what New Zealand exporters are offering, not the market preference. “Whether the market is prepared to pay for bigger sizes and match values being achieved in other markets is the question.”

Lesley says the Thai market is price-sensitive.

“This is a growing market, however at this stage it is a delicate balance, as there is a price point consumers will pay. Sales slow if retail prices are too high.”

JP Exports has been developing the Thai market since 2010, says Lesley.

“In our first season we shipped 800 TEs by air. We have seen a 500 per cent increase in our volumes shipped between 2010 and the 2014-15 season. Other exporters have now entered this market and if you include their volumes shipped to Thailand, I would have to say that this is an emerging market.”

Carwyn says the market has grown significantly, from 3500 trays to just over 80,000 in the 2015-15 season.

“Through our partnership with AVANZA we have initiated an intensive product training programme with both our retail direct customers and our key importers.

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With the assistance of PGP funding, JP Exports promoted its brand and New Zealand avocados in general with a major supermarket last season.

PGP investment

With the assistance of PGP investment, JP Exports promoted New Zealand avocados marketed under their brand with a major supermarket last season.

“Using in-store active sellers, samples of avocados were given to customers to taste. The active sellers also advised their customers how to ripen and when best to eat the avocado. The promotion was a success, our customer saw increased sales and we will do a similar promotion next season.”

Thai consumers, says Carwyn, are not so familiar with avocados and most of the purchasers currently are ex-pats and tourists.

“We are changing this through promoting appropriate usage ideas through our in-store sampling programmes.

“Currently there is a preference for the smaller size fruit, which is typical with most developing markets where price is used as part of the incentive to get people to try an avocado for the first time.”

Lesley says the Thai consumer is becoming aware of the health benefits of the avocado. “There is still much more to be done to educate the consumer on how to buy, store and when best to eat an avocado.”

In the past the Thai market wanted what all of Asia wanted, small fruit.

“For the last two seasons JP Exports’ customer also took some 25 count in their mix for their high end stores and last season, knowing that there would be a lot more avocados on their market, our customer wanted a point of difference from other retailers in Thailand.

“They trialled 20 and 25 count avocados with us and it was successful. Our customer still wants the small fruit as part of the mix they import, however they have shown that there is a market for larger fruit at the right price.”

Over the years, knowledge about handling and storing avocados has certainly improved but there is still a lot of work to do, especially in the stores.

Fruit handling

Andy says there is potential to increase volume with more promotion and education in market.

Markets

In Thailand avocados are mostly eaten fresh and in salads, he says.

With the assistance of PGP funding, JP Exports promoted its brand and New Zealand avocados in general with a major supermarket last season.

“An increase in sea freight programmes will also make our offer more affordable to the Thai consumer, which should help increase market share.”

There may be some issues in the cool chain at wholesale level, but most large retailers have capable facilities and systems to handle the product effectively, he says.

Carwyn says there are some infrastructure issues in the market but he is seeing improvement all the time as partners gain more confidence in their offerings and in turn invest as required.

AVANZA is offering a lot of support in handling fruit.

“We recognise you must have the basic handling fundamentals right first. There is no point in going in with all the marketing bling if you cannot deliver the best possible piece of fruit on time, every time.

“NZTE has been a huge help in assisting us in Thailand, and I would like to acknowledge the team at NZTE Thailand, trade commissioner Karen Campbell and food and beverage manager Weranun Eamboriboon for their outstanding support to AVANZA and New Zealand Avocados.”

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Avoscene July 2015

New Zealand avocado industry standing out in China

By Jen Scoular, CEO, New Zealand Avocado

jen.scoular@nzavocado.co.nz

NZ Avocado CEO Jen Scoular, Chair Ashby Whitehead and Director Tony Ponder represented the New Zealand avocado industry in Shanghai in May at iFresh China Fruit & Vegetable Exhibition 2015 to continue our drive for access for New Zealand avocados to China.

Markets

NZ Avocado was invited to attend iFresh China Fruit

& Vegetable Exhibition 2015 after I met one of the organisers at China FVF in Beijing, in November last year.

In light of the expected progression of our application for phytosanitary access to China, the aim of this show was to continue to raise visibility for avocados from New Zealand.

The Board approved Ashby and I to travel, and Tony Ponder was supported by Avanza. We were able to combine iFresh with commercial meetings and it was a very good combination to have three of us fronting our industry.

I’m happy to report that the trip offered real value in terms of progressing political engagement, gaining market intelligence, and developing strong connections.

Between Midge, Jodi (our new communications assistant) and I, we had exchanged many emails and phone calls with the show organisers to secure a sponsorship package (and negotiate the price down) which included a small exhibition booth, an invitation for me to present the

avocado industry to delegates, and to secure a necessary meeting with an AQSIQ official.

I arrived in Shanghai on a Monday morning after a flight out of Tauranga on Sunday early evening. Upon arrival I decided to head straight to the venue to check that the booth artwork and collateral that Midge and Jodi had organised to be translated and printed in China was all as it should be.

I am very good at getting lost but I think on this journey I set a new record for amount of time and number of taxis used - two and a half hours and three taxis, yet strangely it only took 20 minutes to get back to the hotel I had started my journey at! Luckily taxis are really cheap in China.

When I finally arrived at the right venue, it was great to find that everything was under control and that the collateral would be delivered overnight.

The congress started the next day. We arrived early (in case

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of location mishap). The show was much bigger than we had been lead to believe, with 1000 attendees, all seated in a huge conference room for the day, with trade booths in the entrance corridor and around the seating – ours being one of them and in the best possible position for visibility and passing traffic.

Our information brochures had not only arrived since the night before, but were collated into the folders, and set out on the table and in the brochure stand. It all looked great (and I had to assume the translations were accurate).

The large Premium Avocados from New Zealand banner adorning our booth really stood out, especially as our booth was dead centre at the back of the presenting hall, so very visible.

By midday we had given out all of our information packs to very interested Chinese importers. We were kept busy with people wanting more information about avocados – “when will you have access?”, and of course, wanting to sell their expertise or equipment.

Markets

A real coup was that I was invited to be part of the opening session and so with eight others was introduced and invited onto the stage for the opening presentations. There were a few speeches - and I hadn’t taken my translating headphones up with me, but I’m sure they were very good.

Then we were handed a glass of champagne to celebrate

the conference being open, and then led off the stage. I do rather enjoy champagne but even for me, 9.15am was a little too early.

Ashby, Tony and I had front row seats, and sat through the good sessions from 9.15am through 12.30pm without a break.

The sound from the one speaker set up just in front of us seemed over the morning to get louder and louder, and at one stage I did have to get up and go down the back.

The presenter was talking very passionately, shouting into the microphone which was booming out from the huge speaker. On top of that, the translation we were getting via headphone was loud and muddled with external noise.

The audience talked all the way through, mobiles rang and people answered them in their seats! The noise from all sources, the people getting up and down all the time, the mobiles, the passionate presenters, it was all amazingly distracting, and noisy, but according to the Chinese people we talked to, it was all very normal. Just one of the cultural differences we need to understand.

The opening presenter had talked about successful brands in fresh produce in China and listed the top four, number one being Zespri, and no Chinese brands on the list. Throughout the day we heard mention of Zespri’s success in nearly every second presentation. Zespri’s investment in branding and profile was also a focus of discussion at the commercial meetings we attended. It certainly brought to our attention the need for us to develop a strategy about how might our industry brand avocados from New Zealand, and how might our industry invest in that brand development. From our perspective, our industry’s connections with the kiwifruit industry; in the packhouses being used, in the number of our stakeholders in both industries and with some sharing of expertise and knowledge with Zespri, it will be valuable for us to leverage that connection where we can.

There were some good presentations from the Thailand fruit industry, from a South American on production and exports, from the Chinese official on the process for access, and by experts in the supply chain.

AshbyWhitehead,Tony Ponder and Jen Scoular representing New Zealand avocados at the iFresh Show in Shanghai.

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It was a long wait for my 3.30pm presentation, and the room was getting hotter, louder and more uncomfortable – aided by the presenter before me who decided he should show 750 slides (I kid you not) explaining the different techniques of packaging. Now this was not even fancy packaging, with colourful and exciting graphics, this was brown cardboard packaging. Oh except for the 20 “by the

way” slides about plastic packaging. His 25 minute slot took over an hour, by which time the audience was completely dazed (or crazed) by it, so quite a challenge ahead of me to talk up avocados!

Finally my turn. Our presentation was well received, and the huge photos of New Zealand, our orchards and the NZ Avocado category story collateral looked magnificent on the big – I should say huge – screen, 8m wide by 4m high.

It was probably the most challenging audience I have ever faced. The large, and to us, quite unruly audience, the huge screen, and the noise and translation was quite daunting, but it felt great to be sharing the avocado story.

I then joined a panel discussion on stage with five others, talking about branding in Asian markets. I got to talk up avocados again and shared with the audience and the other panel members some of the exciting promotional activity the industry has undertaken in other Asian markets.

We finished the day with a dinner with a Chinese contact of Tony’s, a very successful businessman, interested in increasing his links with New Zealand. He had some wonderful stories about commercial activity in China and internationally, again just increasing our awareness of how business is done, and more to the point, how fast things are changing.

It couldn’t have been a better day, albeit I was very happy to hit the sack at the end of it.

Day two was less formal for us; we manned the booth, spoke to a lot of Chinese importers about avocados, and listened to the sessions being run. Thursday was set up with a breakfast meeting, a morning meeting with another New

Zealand exporter and an afternoon session with NZTE, MPI and MFAT at New Zealand Central. That evening we took a flight to Shenzhen for a Friday morning meeting and a look at some retail in Shenzhen.

Every time we had mentioned to people in Shanghai about flying to Shenzhen they shook their heads and murmured something about hoping we’d get there. Without going into the detail of what happened - a two and a half hour journey took us six hours each way, plus about an hour in the cab at either end.

Markets

At the end of the day, at 6.30pm, and we got our meeting with Mr Feng, the AQSIQ official, about our China market access application. I had met him briefly the day before, and he had done a great presentation about the process of market access into China, so we had already learned some very useful information. We went into a side room, joined by Steve McCombie from MPI Shanghai, and had 15 minutes with him. We had agreed the strategy was to acknowledge that the process was underway, that our two governments had strong relationships, and that our role was to provide accurate information on their request, to allow China to consider the risks associated with importing avocados from New Zealand. We had a constructive session with My Feng, building that relationship and building our knowledge of the process and the role we can play.

Avocados on sale in a Chinese supermarket.

NZTE Shanghai arranged a meeting for us with their team and MPI Shanghai so we could update them on our progress and strategy. We will also share our findings with NZTE in Tauranga, and with MPI in Wellington to ensure NZ Inc has a good feel for where we are, and can direct us if necessary.

We also met with the GM of Primary Collaboration Shanghai Ltd (PCNZ), the marketing beach head of collaboration between six primary industries in New Zealand - an innovative and exciting concept, so good to better understand how that operates.

We returned to Auckland Sunday morning, on time (thanks Air New Zealand!) keen to be back in our wonderful, and quiet, country. I went up Mount Maunganui later that day, breathing deeply our clean, beautiful, fresh air; admiring the space, the light and the lack of people.

I am very confident the information gained, the links we reinforced or made, and the visibility we raised for avocados from New Zealand will strongly support our industry growth in the future. However I also acknowledge we have only started down this road, and need to commit resource and investment to get the China market on our list of export countries.

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New Zealand to bid to host World Avocado Congress 2019 Following the success of the 2013 joint New Zealand and Australian Avocado Growers’ Conference in Tauranga, the CEO, team and Board believe NZ Avocado has the capability to host a world congress, and sees huge benefits for the industry and for New Zealand in attracting such a congress to New Zealand.

Fifth New Zealand and Australian Avocado Growers' Conference held September 2013 at ASB Arena in Tauranga with 450 industry delegates.

At the June Board meeting the Board approved the

business case for NZ Avocado to go ahead with a bid in Peru to host the 2019 World Avocado Congress here in New Zealand.

Highlight the advances the industry has made with PGP The timing of a 2019 world congress in New Zealand fits very neatly at the end of our Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) and could be used to highlight the successes the industry has made and to share best practise realised from PGP. Provide what may be a once in a lifetime opportunity to be a delegate The financial and time restraints some New Zealand

Showcase our industry’s unique advantages

Reports

An independent feasibility study has been completed suggesting a World Avocado Congress attracting 700 delegates would be economically viable for the New Zealand avocado industry to host. The benefits of visibility, engagement, R&D partnerships and knowledge sharing have not been specifically assessed but are described in the following.

growers have often prevents them attending a world congress. To host the WAC in Auckland in 2019 would give 1350 growers and their partners the amazing opportunity to learn, to network, and to better understand New Zealand’s place in the global avocado market.

Additionally, the ability for New Zealand packers, exporters and growers to show off what makes their offering unique and premium adds value to our value chain to market. The opportunity to impress 300-400 international visitors with the New Zealand avocado story holds significant value.

Share knowledge of new technology Hosting a world congress attracts congress delegates but also those in the service and equipment industries - those developing new technology, importers, those finding supply chain solutions. Having these companies in New Zealand for an avocado-centric week offers us great opportunity to impress, connect and attract investment into our industry.

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Raise visibility of the industry and support industry morale The 2013 joint New Zealand and Australian Avocado Growers’ conference was an exceptional event; it was fantastic for visibility of the industry but also for morale.

Growers were inspired, the industry felt good about the opportunities in avocados, and the feeling surrounding the conference and the delegates during those three days can only be described as electric. An international event would undoubtedly evoke this feeling again and more.

Networking with the world’s avocado researchers We all recognise there is a huge global opportunity in research and development in avocados. The value to our industry of having the world’s avocado research community in New Zealand for a week is hard to quantify, except that it offers an amazing opportunity which we would leverage. It would just be about the week they are in New Zealand. Being able to talk about

what might happen in 2019 would enhance the work we are doing now building the avocado research capability and connectedness. Plant & Food Research, our research partner says of the opportunity:

Hosting the 2019 World Avocado Congress in New Zealand would provide a unique opportunity to also bring together some of the world’s leading avocado researchers to work with scientists at Plant & Food Research.The global engagement, networking and professional development opportunities presented by such an event would be extremely valuable; it will build networks and relationships between international science groups involved with avocado research to ensure the most effective and up-to-date scientific approaches are used when attempting to find solutions to industry problems.

The Congress will allow both our emerging researchers and preeminent scientists alike the chance to engage in discussion and debate about the role that research could play in the export growth of an increasingly important New Zealand horticultural crop. Plant & Food Research wholeheartedly supports Avocados New Zealand’s bid to host the 2019 World Avocado Congress and looks forward to being a part of the event in 2019.

Reports

To support the bid to host the 2019 WAC, the CEO has received financial commitment of $32,000, being $20,000 from Tourism NZ and $12,000 from Auckland Convention Bureau. Additionally both organisations have offered resource in New Zealand to develop and implement a successful bid. The bid itself would utilise the expected 40-strong New Zealand party of growers attending the Peru Congress, as ‘New Zealand Ambassadors’. Plant & Food Research will have a team of at least three at the congress.

The CEO and the NZ Avocado team believes we are very capable of hosting a world congress and that the benefits of hosting a world congress are very good for both our industry and for New Zealand. In the short term, this is a great opportunity to utilise external expertise to raise visibility in bidding, as a New Zealand team, to host the world congress. Spillover benefits include the development of collateral that would be used in export markets, the increase in capability across the team, and the international engagement we would be undertaking if we made the bid that we might otherwise not undertake.

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Avocentric - Ross Mutton and Lesley Skill

By Elaine Fisher, Journalist, SunMedia

elaine@thesun.co.nz

A ‘basic’ approach to orcharding is yielding results for Ross Mutton and Lesley Skill of Far North Avocados Ltd.

Ross Mutton and Lesley Skill.

“There is no point in striving for extremely high production if some basic areas are not right yet.You have to walk before you can run,” says Ross, who with Lesley Skill owns Far North Avocados Ltd. Ross says his interest in owning an avocado orchard grew out of his career in wholesale fruit and vegetable marketing.

“I was selling avocados and really liked the fruit and decided I wanted to own an orchard.”

In 2004 the couple took part ownership of a 10ha orchard in Hukatere Road, Kaitaia, which they ran ‘on remote control’ while still living in the Bay of Plenty.

“We went up every six weeks to do some work and spent our holidays there.”

Reports

“Get the basics right first, and then start experimenting with the rocket science” is Ross Mutton’s approach to avocado orcharding.

The orchard had 3.85 canopy hectares of avocados trees of which some were young, non-producing trees.

Sick trees

Over time very sick trees have been removed, others nursed back to health and new trees have been planted on undeveloped land. Today the orchard has six canopy hectares of avocados but not all are in production.

“It’s a long slow process to bring the orchard into production. The oldest trees were planted in 1995 and with the benefit of hindsight, the orchard probably wasn’t developed to the best advantage.

“The home orchard has a layer of black top soil under which is what I call a two metre thick slab of concrete – a

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hard sandstone pan – and under that the sand is tightly compacted.

“Once the tree roots have covered 100 per cent of the top soil area, you tend to get tree decline.”

In the newly developed areas of the orchard the sandstone pan has been broken and the new clonal rootstock Duke 7 have been planted, with every second tree a seedling.

“The Duke 7 trees appear to be doing much better than the seedlings.”

Reports

Dusa have also been planted and so far are also performing well. Far North Avocados Ltd is part of a pre-commercial trial of other new varieties Carmen and Maluma, which are growing on Dusa and Bounty rootstocks. Ross says the results are pleasing and he was keen to be involved in the trial, having seen the advantages early adopters of new kiwifruit varieties have enjoyed.

Fulltime orchardists

Because the Hukatere orchard is not yet in full production, Ross leases another 8.5 canopy ha orchard. This has enabled him and Lesley to be full-time orchardists.

“Leasing the second orchard has allowed us to keep on orcharding while we wait for our own orchard to come back on stream production-wise.”

It has also enabled the couple to invest in orcharding equipment including a mower, sprayer and Hydralada.

“This means we can do what is required on the orchards in a timely manner without waiting for someone else.”

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Every tree on both orchards is treated as an individual.

“Some get flower pruning, some don’t. Usually when I’ve made the decision to flower prune or not, six months later I’m 99 per cent happy with the outcome.”

Ideally every tree is visited with a chainsaw twice a year and Ross figures if he does that consistently for four to five years, the time will come when it doesn’t have to be so frequent.

Pruning is designed to control vegetative vigour of the tree and help it crop consistently. The aim is to prune to allow light into the tree and those around it, and attention is also given to ease of picking so the trees are opened up to allow access for the Hydralada operator.

“Height is not so much an issue as we can pick up to 10 metres but anything over 7 metres gets attacked.”

Fertiliser application by spreader is little and often, based on the results of soil and leaf tests.

High rainfall

“The lease orchard is set up for fertigation but I have stopped using it because of the time and costs involved in both the inputs and electricity to run the system.

“I’m not sure, with the high rainfall we have in this area, that adding extra water to apply fertiliser is a good idea.

I’m also not convinced it feeds the whole tree, whereas by applying hard fertiliser at ground level we can get close to 100 per cent coverage.”

Phytophthora is an issue for the orchard and every tree

is injected annually with low-pressure injections during March and April. Sicker trees are also injected during August and September.

Orchard performance 2009-10 to 2014-15

“I think Phytophthora has been blamed for a lot of tree decline but there may be other issues at play, including poor drainage,” says Ross, who is part of the Far North Tree Decline Working Group.

“This is a good group to be involved in because it gives you the chance to see what others are doing and confirm and cement in your own mind what you are doing. I think all the growers involved are benefiting.”

Hukatere R oad: 2 009 -10 to 2 012 -13

Pest monitoring

Hukatere R oad - 2 011-12 to 2 014 -15 Paparore R oad 2 009 -10 to 2 012 -13

When it comes to insect pests, Ross leaves monitoring to FruitFed.

Paparore R oad 2 011-12 to 2 014 -15

H ukatere R oad Orchard

“It’s not something I enjoy and if it was left to me, I’m not sure I would do it regularly enough. I’m happy to pay for the service and follow the recommendations.”

6

12 000 5

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Even before AvoGreen and pest monitoring became mandatory, Ross had the orchard monitored for insects.

4

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6 000

“For the last five years it’s really lifted our game with virtually no rejects due to pests among our fruit.”

2

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2 000

However, Ross is concerned about the limited availability of softer, effective chemicals for targeting thrips on avocados.

“We could do with more tools in our tool box to fight thrips.”

Thanks to careful management and re-development, the

0

Hectares V olume (5 .5 kg trays)

0 2 010

2 011

2 012

2 013

2 014

2 015

outlook for the home orchard is positive. Production currently ranges from zero to 15 tonne per hectare depending on tree ages. The lease orchard produces 16.5 tonnes per hectare. Ross aims to improve on both those performances in the coming years.

Reports

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Avocados may hold the answer to beating leukemia Rich, creamy, nutritious and now cancer fighting. New research reveals that molecules derived from avocados could be effective in treating a form of cancer.

Professor Paul Spagnuolo.

Professor Paul Spagnuolo from the University of

Waterloo has discovered a lipid in avocados that combats acute myeloid leukemia (AML) by targeting the root of the disease – leukemia stem cells. Worldwide, there are few drug treatments available to patients that target leukemia stem cells.

Nourish

AML is a devastating disease and proves fatal within five years for 90 per cent of seniors over age 65.

Spagnuolo’s new avocado-derived drug could one day significantly increase life expectancy and quality of life for AMLpatients.

“The stem cell is really the cell that drives the disease,” said Professor Spagnuolo, in Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy. “The stem cell is largely responsible for the disease developing and it’s the reason why so many

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patients with leukemia relapse. We’ve performed many rounds of testing to determine how this new drug works at a molecular level and confirmed that it targets stem cells selectively, leaving healthy cells unharmed.”

Spagnuolo’s research is published today in Cancer Research, a top-ten oncology journal. Through partnership with the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) he has also filed a patent application for the use of the compound, named avocatin B, to treat AML. “It’s an exciting time for our lab. With the help of CCRM we are now pursuing commercial partnership that would take avocatin B into clinical trials,” said Professor Spagnuolo. “Not only does avocatin B eliminate the source of AML, but its targeted, selective effects make it less

toxic to the body, too.”

The drug is still years away from becoming approved for use in oncology clinics, but Spagnuolo is already performing experiments to prepare the drug for a Phase I clinical trial. This is the first round of trials where people diagnosed with AML could have access to the drug.

Professor Spagnuolo is among only a handful of researchers worldwide, applying the pharmaceutical industry’s rigorous drug discovery research processes to food-derived compounds, called nutraceuticals.

There are multiple potential applications for Avocatin B beyond oncology, and the drug is just one of several promising compounds that Spagnuolo and his team have isolated from a library of nutraceuticals. Most labs would use food or plant extracts, but Spagnuolo prefers the precision of using nutraceuticals with defined structures.

“Extracts are less refined. The contents of an extract can

vary from plant to plant and year to year, depending on lots of factors – on the soil, the location, the amount of sunlight, the rain,” said Spagnuolo. “Evaluating a nutraceutical as a potential clinical drug requires in-depth evaluation at the molecular level. This approach provides a clearer understanding of how the nutraceutical works, and it means we can reproduce the effects more accurately and consistently. This is critical to safely translating our lab work into a reliable drug that could be used in oncology clinics.”

The University of Waterloo and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada fund Professor Spagnuolo’s research on avocatin B. CCRM is a not-for-profit, publicprivate consortium that supports the development of technologies that accelerate the commercialization of stem cell- and biomaterials-based technologies and therapies.

Source: https://uwaterloo.ca/news/news/avocados-may-hold-answerbeating-leukemia

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Excellent time to be a fruit grower

By Elaine Fisher, Journalist, SunMedia

elaine@thesun.co.nz

Fruit and vegetable growers, including avocado orchardists, have the high ground nutritionally and their products have a vital role to play in the health of the world’s population, says Paula Dudley, general manager for United Fresh New Zealand Incorporated.

Avocado and shrimp cocktail is a nutritious combination from the 5+ A Day recipe collection.

“Fresh fruit and vegetables are the only food group where the message is to eat more, which is great,” says Paula.

Getting the health message across to consumers is crucial because the world is facing a very big health crisis.

“The number of people with non-communicable diseases has increased due to the global rise of overweight and obesity, and is now costing the world $2 trillion per year. If we can’t reverse this trend, more than one billion adults are expected to be obese by 2030.”

There is evidence that fruit and vegetable consumption decreases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, obesity and diabetes, as well as certain types of cancer. Diet and inactivity accounts for 10 per cent of global disabilities, with low fruit and vegetable consumption being a dominant factor.

Paula says the food industry is a tough playing field, however fresh fruit and vegetables have the upper hand when it comes to health and there is a real movement towards fresh food and fashion.

“Smart operators can capitalise on this, as we at the 5+ A

Public health

Paula says it is important to define the difference between The 5+ A Day Charitable Trust, and the educational and promotional work it does to increase consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables from a flight of advertising.

“Our approach in New Zealand is a comprehensive multitiered programme.

“We look for innovative ways to create healthy environments to increase the consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, with the aim to improve public health and profitability for the pan-produce industry.”

The trust works with Government, industry, education, NGOs, global organisations such as the International Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, (which Paula co-chairs) and the World Health Organisation. To ensure it’s on track, 5+ A Day uses research and Government data to gauge its impact.

Nourish

“This means that billions of dollars could be saved each year by eating more fruit and vegetables.”

Day Charitable Trust are doing by focusing of fresh seasonal produce, sound nutrition information and up-to-the-minute recipes and serving suggestions.”

There’s been a recent rise in healthy eating campaigns but few are as enduring as 5 + A Day, which is now ‘20 years young’.

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with engagement than entries. We grew our social media audiences exponentially. We have over 25,000 likes on Facebook, which is a growth of 20 per cent from December 2014. Our website attracted over 11,500 visitors. We received 3298 entries, which was over double the previous year, however, this is not a KPI for us.

“Our videos received up to 12,000 views and our highest reaching Facebook post was seen by over 260,000.”

Print media coverage reached a nationwide audience of 1,160,786. The introduction of the #5adaySelfie gave this year’s challenge a new twist, creating interest and social media conversations.

The 5+ A Day February challenge included #5adaySelfies which gave this year’s challenge a new twist, creating interest and social media conversations.

During February, 40 different advertisements played out featuring the 5+ A Day mascot Fredge and 5+ A Day fans from all around New Zealand. #5adaySelfies were sent via the 5+ A Day public Facebook wall. These ads reached an audience of over 960,000 kiwis through TVNZ and SkyTV.

Unite competitors

Paula says because it is an education programme that has national and international partners,

“Over the past two decades we have seen advertising campaigns come and go, and some don’t even get off the ground after the initial announcement. The difference with 5+ A Day is it is multi-faceted education programme that is introducing the consumers of tomorrow to fresh fruit and vegetables.”

5+ A Day also has the ability to connect and unite New Zealand’s pan-produce industry; including those who under any other circumstance are fierce competitors.

“They all have one thing in common, they support and believe in New Zealand’s now iconic health/food brand and comprehensive 5+ A Day programme striving to raise fresh fruit and vegetable consumption.

Nourish

“We welcome the introduction of Junk Free June from our partners at the Cancer Society. We are collaborating with them on this event, as fresh fruit and vegetables are the obvious replacement for less healthy alternatives and this is a brilliant way for the Cancer Society to fundraise.”

Keeping 5+ A Day fresh, relevant and before the public is the aim and this year’s 5+ A Day February challenge very successfully did just that.

Social media hit

“The objective of the challenge is to raise awareness, increase consumption and engage Kiwis; we are more interested

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5+ A Day has the ability to move fast and align itself with sound international science and best practice.

Fruit in schools

Another measure of its effectiveness is 5+ A Day working with New Zealand schools providing curricula linked resources and with United Fresh New Zealand Incorporated on the Government-funded Fruit in Schools programme providing 100,000 pieces of fresh produce to low decile schools, every school day.

This has effectively changed the environment for 480 low decile schools in New Zealand, says Paula, who presented findings of independent research into the effects of the programme to an international audience including WHO and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation at the EGEA Conference in Milan.

“An evaluation by the school principals has shown that as a result of the scheme, there are fewer hungry children, there is a reduced stigma and bullying culture around children who did not bring food to school, and children have a better attention span.

“Health of the children had definitely improved. ‘School sores’ have now been eradicated in most of those schools, which used to be a big problem, and children take fewer sick days. Essentially, it has succeeded in ‘normalising’ fruit and vegetable eating among these children.”

Recipe Avocado and prosciutto pizza

By Nadia Lim

Avocado and prosciutto go so well together on pizza, and this recipe is a real crowd pleaser!

If you don’t have prosciutto, use chopped up pieces of crispy bacon.

Makes 2 pizzas, enough to serve 3-4 people Prep time: 20 minutes + 40 minutes rising time for the dough Cook time: 12-15 minutes Pizza base (makes 4 pizza bases)

1 cup (250ml) warm water 1 tablespoon active dried yeast 1 teaspoon sugar 450g high grade flour 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 teaspoon salt Toppings

1 x 400g can crushed or pureed tomatoes 1 punnet cherry tomatoes, cut in half 2 cups grated mozzarella cheese 2 avocados, sliced 200g prosciutto slices ½ red onion, very thinly sliced 2 handfuls baby watercress or rocket 1 handful basil leaves 1/3 cup crème fraiche or sour cream 2 tablespoons capers, finely chopped 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice 4. Preheat oven to 230°C. If you have them, place two pizza stones on separate shelves in the oven to preheat.

Alternatively preheat 2 oven trays. Get them really hot (this helps the bases crisp up on the bottom).

2. Place the flour, olive oil and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Add the yeast mixture and mix well to form a dough (note: there may be some left over flour in the bowl once you’ve formed the dough, this is fine). Knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic, then place in an oiled bowl. Cover with a tea towel or clingfilm and place in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk (about 40 minutes).

5. Lay each pizza base on a sheet of baking paper and roll them out to get a nice thin base. Spread tomato sauce over each base, leaving an edge for the crust. Sprinkle over mozzarella and arrange cherry tomatoes (cut-side-up) on top. Carefully lift up the baking paper with the pizza on top and place on hot preheated stone or tray. Cook the pizza until the base is crisp and the cheese is melted and golden, about 12 minutes.

3. Once it has risen, knock back the dough and divide into 4 even pieces. This recipe uses 2 pizza bases so you can refrigerate or freeze the other 2 pieces of dough (wrapped well in clingfilm) to use at a later date. Alternatively you can cook all four pizzas, and just double the amount of toppings listed above.

Nourish

1. To make the pizza dough, put the warm water in a mixing bowl and add the yeast and sugar. Stir gently. Leave in a warm place until the yeast has dissolved and the mixture is frothy. Mix well.

6. Take pizzas out of the oven and arrange slices of avocado and prosciutto on top, followed by red onion, watercress or rocket, and basil. Mix crème fraiche, capers and lemon juice and drizzle over the top. Grind over plenty of freshly cracked black pepper. Slice and serve.

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Out and about

David French presenting on his own orchard at the NZ Avocado South Auckland field day.

New Zealand Organic Growers Inc. at their AGM. Attendees enjoyed an informative presentation from the 'Crop Check Team', discussions on canopy management, and a tour of Roger andValerie Haugh's orchard.

Winner of the Young Fruit Grower of theYear competition for the BOP, Craig Ward from Apata.

Danni presenting onWarwick and Mary Coles' orchard at the NZ Avocado field day in Katikati.

Out & About

Brad Siebert and PhillipWest with recent university graduates on the Ministry for Primary Industries' Graduate programme - Learning about the avocado industry.

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BOP Young Fruit Grower of the Year contestant Samantha Mansell completing the practical part of NZ Avocados phosphorus injecting challenge.

Jodi Senior, Danni van der Heijden, and Midge Munro with NZ Avocados stand at the BOP Young Fruit Grower of theYear competition.

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