Avoscene march 2016

Avoscene New Zealand Avocado Growers’ Journal

March 2016

Love for industry spans generations in Evans family

Inside this issue: Leaf roller mating disruption in avocado orchards Worksafe assessment 'not too daunting' Market focus: China will be a 'game changer' for avocado industry New cultivars update Avoscene March 2016

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“We filter out the information. If you ask 10 different people, you’ll get 10 different answers. We figure out what’s the best for us.”

ROY ORLOWSKI, TEAM AVOCADO AND AVOCO GROWER OF THE YEAR 2014-15

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www.avoco.co.nz AVO0316

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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)

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On the Orchard

Newsroom

www.nzavocado.co.nz

View from the Chair

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Industry news

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@NZ_Avocado

Growing the business

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New faces

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NZ Avocado

Going global

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Industry matters

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@nz_avocado

Outside the box

NZ Avocado

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

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The New Zealand Market 12 Regional roundup

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Growers letters

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Leafroller mating disruption in avocado orchards 30

Recommended reading 25

Increase of passionvine hoppers seen in the Bay of Plenty 33

Avocado news from the world

WorkSafe assessment 'not too daunting'

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Dave Flett m. 027 555 4420 dave.flett@yahoo.co.nz

Markets

Reports

Far North

New Zealand market promotions 38

'Amazing yet complex' trees focus

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Updated health claims code

Market focus: China will be a “game-changer� for avocado industry

New cultivars update

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Recipe 61

Ian Fulton Ph 09 406 8808 ian.fulton@clear.net.nz At Large Roger Barber Ph 09 435 0785 m. 021 488 124 barbers@ihug.co.nz

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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

Nourish

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Research & Development update 50 Export promotions

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Avocentric Ann-Marie and Kevin Evans

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Picture perfect at Taste of Auckland

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Out and About

Out and about

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Rest of NZ David French Ph 09 238 3359 m. 0274 375 315 famille@ps.gen.nz Export Directors Andrew Darling

Cover Shot: Avocentric: Ann-Marie and Kevin Evans See page 55

Avoscene Advertising & Editorial

NZ Avocado Staff

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

Jen Scoular, CEO

Glenys Parton, Industry Systems Manager

Midge Munro, Communications Manager

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

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

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

Edwina Aitchison, Executive Assistant

Marisa Till, R&D Manager

Bevan Jelley, New Zealand Market

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

marisa.till@nzavocado.co.nz | 021 344 559

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

Brad Siebert Biosecurity & Programme Manager

Phillip West, R&D Officer

Jodi Senior, Communications Assistant

For advertising contact: Suzy King at Sun Media Ltd Phone 021 769 831 email suzy@thesun.co.nz Design and production: Kym Johnson, Sun Media Ltd email kym@thesun.co.nz For subscriptions contact: Michael Gray email michael.gray@nzavocado.co.nz

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

jodi.senior@nzavocado.co.nz

Danni van der Heijden, Research Associate

Cameron Wallace, Research Analyst

Jay Bent, Business Manager jay.bent@nzavocado.co.nz | 027 465 8886

danielle.vanderheijden@nzavocado.co.nz

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

Michael Gray, Avocado Analyst

cameron.wallace@nzavocado.co.nz

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

michael.gray@nzavocado.co.nz

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View from the Chair

By Ashby Whitehead, Chair, NZAGA & AIC

alwhitehead@xtra.co.nz

2016 has started very positively with delegations from China planning visits to progress access to China, and we have signed the GIA Deed. It is great to see progress as a result of the fantastic collaboration happening in our industry as we strive towards our collective goals.

We will soon be hosting two delegations from China: Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and CIQA.

The importance of the AQSIQ meeting in regard to access to China cannot be underestimated. The precursor was Jen Scoular and Tony Ponder’s visit to China in December last year to meet with AQSIQ. This meeting was organised by Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) Beijing and resulted in an acceptance of our invitation for a market access visit.

We work very closely with MPI and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) on these visits and meetings. The Board and I share appreciation of the efforts MPI makes on our industry’s behalf.

Just as an indication of the time these processes take - it was back at a meeting I attended with Tony and Jen in Beijing, November 2014, that I offered the first invitation to the AQSIQ Director.The invitation was formally accepted in January 2016 and the visit planned for March 2016.

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Throughout this process it is imperative that the engagement across all levels is active and consistent. MPI is very involved and communications are happening constantly across all levels.

Acknowledgement must also go to those behind the scenes putting the visit together - Glenys Parton and Brad Siebert on our side, and Karen Sparrow, Lihong Zhu and Henry Pak from MPI. Thank you also to Brad for his initiative in seeking and having approved new funding from MFAT, which will provide funding through the Trade Access Support Programme to support this visit.

We have set a date of February 25 to sign the Government Industry Agreement with Hon. Nathan Guy. This process has taken some years to get to the signing stage, but the Deed we sign is one that has been robustly debated. Following our industry joining GIA, we will participate as a GIA signatory at the regular Deed Governance Group meetings.

We had expected an Operational Agreement to be up and running by the end of 2015, however industry has raised

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issues with clauses on compensation and liability which are yet to be resolved. We remain very involved in this discussion.

The last tau fly incursion does not directly affect avocados but we are still very involved in the cross-industry response.

The industry, but more specifically the NZ Avocado team, is working very well together with great results being demonstrated. The Board strongly support and appreciate the effort being made and I believe growers should be made aware of the efforts being made on their behalf.

Congratulations to Midge Munro who is the inaugural recipient of a bursary from Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Australia-New Zealand and Nuffield Australia to participate in the PMA Foundation Emerging Leaders Programme. The programme is spread over ten months, with an intensive four day on-campus component at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Arizona, USA. Collectively we are all enjoying the fruits of our labours.

I hope to hear about grower profits being reinvested into orchards to increase productivity. Large new investments are being made into new avocado production, suggesting significant confidence in our industry’s future.

Personally I strongly support the industry’s collaborative approach to science and marketing. Jointly we are still learning and needing to learn, but if we do things together, in discussion, and in the same direction, we will advance much more strongly.

The Board is very mindful of succession planning and would like to encourage anyone interested in a future position on the Board to approach us. I’m very happy to receive your call or enquiry. In regards to this, we have accepted the approach from the Institute of Directors to allow the winner of the BOP Aspiring Director Award, Bryan Graham, to sit on our Board, in a non-voting role, for 12 months. Bryan attended our first meeting for the year and we have already seen his valuable contribution. Please see the article on the Aspiring Director Award on page 23.

Additionally, I am pleased to have Bob Major, a professional director, join us as Independent Chair of the PGP Steering Group. Bob offers excellent external expertise to better enable us to fully utilise the crown investment from PGP. The Board planned a meeting in Whangarei to take the opportunity to mix and mingle with growers. The visit included two field days and a social event in the evening.

Engagement should be an on-going and open process and we encourage you as growers to talk to us – brick bats and bouquets welcome.

Brad Siebert and AshbyWhitehead hosting Helen Sillars (PGP Investment manager) and Bob Major (appointed independent Chair for the industry's PGP Steering Group) on a packhouse and orchard tour.

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Growing the business

By Jen Scoular, CEO, New Zealand Avocado

jen.scoular@nzavocado.co.nz

Without a doubt, 2016 is shaping up to be a very positive year. Already we have had fantastic opportunities presented to host Chinese and Peruvian delegations, and have enjoyed hosting field days collaboratively with packhouses and exporters where we are meeting more keen avocado growers.

I returned in January from a two week break in Europe – attending a family birthday and enjoying wandering around great cities. It was lovely arriving to our warm, wonderful summer and longer days. It was also very good to return to positive news about potential high volumes for the next season.

I certainly looked out for avocados while I was away and can report they are very much in favour, with noticeably more visibility about avocados, and about health in general. Jamie Oliver’s restaurants use avocado frequently, as do the Pret a Manger, Marks and Spencers, and other lunch take out stores.

Most impressive to me (which is saying something because the whole store is super impressive), was the Fortnum and Mason sandwich counter. At this particular counter, you could choose your fillings from an amazing range of meats and salad ingredients, and when chatting to the guy behind the counter, I discovered that avocado is one of the most popular additions to those sandwiches.

He had some perfect-looking ripened avocados ready to use that day in the sandwiches.

It was great news, just before I went on leave, to get a positive response from China in regards to a market access visit to our avocado regions in New Zealand.

I concur with Ashby's comments about the amount of work that needs to go on behind the scenes to make such visits successful, and thank those involved, within my team and at MPI and MFAT. Additionally, we will host a large delegation led by the association attached to AQSIQ, called CIQA. This was a result of our meeting in Beijing, attended by AQSIQ and the Chair of CIQA, who I had met previously when we both presented at the iFresh show in Shanghai. He was impressed with both the research and marketing activity being done collaboratively across our industry, and raised at that meeting the possibility of bringing a delegation from China to see us, and other horticulture industries, to share knowledge and expertise. Every time we have met with officials in China they have made positive

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comment about us being in their market - they certainly like to know we are preparing our industry for access, and congratulate us on being in the market to do that.

For this to come to fruition so quickly was impressive, and although challenging to arrange and manage the high expectations of 15 official Chinese visitors, it is a terrific opportunity for our industry.

At the same time, we welcomed Victor Escobedo and Arturo Medina from ProHass Peru, who visited our industry in February to learn and share technical knowledge with us. In particular, they came to learn and share information on productivity, but also to better understand our industry structure and the collaborative nature of how we operate. This trip was a result of our

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engagement with ProHass before and during the World Avocado Congress in Lima in September last year.

Engagement is a buzz word across business and relates hugely to us as an industry. I have a very engaged team, and we certainly endeavour to engage across our industry, across horticulture, across stakeholders, and in fact across industries that may have no specific links to avocado, but often offer insights or ideas that we can use or learn from. Being a PGP recipient offers terrific opportunities to attend workshops with other PGP recipients, where we all pick up great ideas and can share our challenges and get interesting and useful feedback about how we might resolve those challenges.

It was great to be involved in the Board’s trip to Whangarei, the two field days and the meet and greet with growers in the evening. We have welcomed the involvement by packhouses and exporters in field days – or welcomed the invitation from packhouses and exporters for us to share their field days. This has resulted in really strong turn-outs and I share thanks

Examples of avocado in London.

to those of you who participate and thanks also to those growers who email or call us. I reiterate Ashby’s comment – brick bats and bouquets welcome.

And as Valentine’s Day has just been, especially bouquets!

It is progress to have signed the GIA Deed. There has been considerable work getting to this stage, and ensuring our industry has the processes in place to manage biosecurity under GIA. Again, being at the table with other GIA signatories allows good crossindustry engagement, robust discussion and ensures we collectively understand and put in place the most effective ways to manage biosecurity.

I am very pleased to have welcomed Marisa Till to our industry as Research and Development Manager.

Thanks to Phillip for holding the fort since September.

He has done a great job of leading the projects we have.

Marisa joins a great team and I am confident she will add real value to our ability to meet the industry vision, to maximise industry value over the long term. I hope many of you met Marisa at the recent field days.

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Going global

By Jarrod Redwood, General Manager - Operations & Procurement, Just Avocados Ltd

jarrod@justavocados.co.nz

A low volume year and an incredible increase in consumer demand has made the 2015-16 season a game-changer. Consumers continue to learn about the health and nutritional benefits of avocados, resulting in a rise in demand which has led to markets, in particular Australia, seeing avocado prices sky rocket higher than ever before.

At a time when the Australian market is achieving record high values, it is an ideal opportunity to put some context in behind what is driving this. All industry stakeholders understand the supply and demand dynamic and have experienced the highs and lows this can bring.

Yet the trading environment we are currently experiencing is unique, with many contributing factors. Whilst supply vs demand is undoubtedly a major part of this, there are other influences here that need to be recognised. By understanding these we are better positioned to ensure the sustainability of our industry moving forward, and we can apply these principles to new and developing markets in future.

From a basic view point there are the normal or somewhat consistent factors contributing to this, including low volume seasons, Western Australia volumes reducing and in some cases exiting the market earlier than expected, wet weather affecting New Zealand supply and continuity, and of course the expected high summer season demand. But all of this doesn’t tell the full story.

High level promotions have played a key part in driving the consumption in Australia from 2.5kgs per person to 3.2kgs per person over the last five years. These promotions have included social media, TV commercials, print advertising, working with health professionals, and engaging the food service industry. These high level promotional strategies allow us to engage with end consumers at a non-commercial level, making it more “educational” than purely sales focused. These constant and consistent messages increase the consumer awareness of the health and nutritional benefits and versatility of avocados. Most importantly, this activity has grown the category regardless of country of origin. It’s heartening to see the great working relationship between NZ Avocado, Horticulture Innovation Australia Ltd and Avocados Australia Ltd backed by grower and exporter levies paying true dividends here.

In conjunction with more traditional export marketing, retailer driven price point promotions, in-store tastings and effective point-of-sale material, avocados now hold an enviable positon as a must-have product for consumers, leaving next to no alternative regardless of the retail price point. Food service demand continues to rise with the ever-increasing popularity of sushi bars and Mexican themed restaurants, which at

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Record high prices in Australia.

present is one of the fastest growing cuisine categories globally.

In a snapshot, all of this bodes well for the long-term sustainability of our industry. But of course it’s not all about Australia. The title of this article is ‘Going Global’ and it is important we recognise the commitment made to developing and mature markets outside of Australia by most exporters - in particular, AVANZA which has once again played a significant role in ensuring we stay relevant as an industry in these highly competitive markets. Let’s not forget that whilst Australia is in the limelight as we write this article, it is not a given that this will always be the case and it is in every stakeholders’ interest to prepare for that “what if ” situation.

Rest assured that as an industry we are already also applying the marketing principles proving to be so effective in Australia in other developed, emerging and new markets such as Japan, Singapore, Korea, Thailand and India.

So what does all of this tell us?

That it’s not about whether as a small producing country on a global scale we can afford to promote our story, it’s that we can’t afford not to!

AVOCADOS DO JUST AVOCADOS. We grow, we harvest, we pack, we export, and we market.

It just makes sense. So does choosing the only fully integrated service provider for all your Avocado needs.

Talk to us today about putting your Avocados into our experienced hands.

Call us: (07) 549 3027 Email us: steve@justavocados.co.nz www.justavocados.co.nz

JUST LIKE YOU.

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Outside the box

By Lindsay Wells, Chairman, Natural Touch Ltd. Horticulture

lindsay@ntlhorticulture.co.nz

Compliance should be thoughtfully maintained in every way possible on avocado orchards to meet export requirements. By working together and everyone doing their part, growers and packhouses can achieve compliance more effectively.

Whether it is true or not, free trade agreements seem to

have added a bit more compliance to exporting fruit. All countries, whether as a result of reduced tariffs or because they have become biosecurity and food safety conscious, are increasing compliance requirements to replace tariffs and these appear to be becoming the new trade barrier.

The positive outcome for us as growers, packers and exporters is that we can up our game to meet those requirements, whereas we have had no control over the tariffs imposed by the importing countries.

For the fruit to leave our shores, the growers, packing facilities and all others in the cool chain pre-shipping must comply with importing countries quarantine and food safety requirements. We are all in this together and each of us needs to ensure the product meets the importing countries’ regulations.

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The avocado industry in New Zealand has relied on the Australian market for many years and we have an excellent system in place to comply with their quality, food safety and quarantine requirements. However, the New Zealand avocado market has in the last few years become a bigger, more global, market with more fruit being shipped to Japan and South East Asia to diversify our markets. The upside is that the market is increasing with some excellent returns, but the downside is until we can understand each markets’ requirements there will be changes to orchard management and logistics throughout the cool chain.

Therefore, it’s not only the job of the grower to produce the best fruit in the world, we are now expecting them to be AvoGreen compliant with minimum residues, have no insects and be compliant with importing countries’ other

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requirements. This means the growers’ job just got a little more complicated and so has that of your packhouse.

For example: the Thailand market has become a very important market for New Zealand avocado in value and increased volume over the last few years. Greedy Scale (Hemiberlesia rapax) is a quarantine pest for this market and to complicate matters Lantania Scale (Hemiberlesia lantaniae) is not, and both can be found on a large number of orchards.

The difficulty is, that one needs a degree in entomology and a very good identification system to identify the difference - potentially outside of the realms of many packhouses. This means all intercepted scale need to be sent to an identification lab for confirmation of species.

Where does this leave the growers and the packhouse?

The identification system is a cost to the grower, not to mention a delay in the cool chain to market.

The packhouse will do its best through the use of the waterblaster and during the grading and packing for export process to reduce the fruit with scale getting into the export boxes for Thailand.

However, our Quality Control, who are accountable to MPI through the packing facility Documented Operating System, only need to find one scale in a 600-fruit sample of a grower line and that fruit will then be put on hold until the identification process has been completed. If Greedy Scale is positively identified, then the fruit will be required to be withdrawn from the Thailand market or re-packed. If the fruit is withdrawn from the Thailand market, this reduces the markets available for that fruit because of fruit size and pack type.

As a side note, although relevant to this discussion, as packhouses, it is no coincidence we find an increase in phytosanitary issues when the growers and/or industry face a low fruit year. As a grower, I can understand the wish to reduce the input costs on the orchard to improve the bottom line, but 36 years of experience tells me it is usually false economy. Low fruit years mean high value returns as a rule of thumb, however, poor pest management can reduce export pack-out yields and put pressure on the packhouse to do the best for the grower, while meeting marketers’ flow plans, as well as enhancing

pest pressure in the orchard the following season.

What does this all mean for the future where a grower will be expected to produce a multi-market crop?

To maximise returns the crop must be pest-free with residues to meet the market requirements.

This means crop management has stepped up a notch with the understanding of lifecycles and flight times to help target insects such as scale. The packhouses are being asked every year to take on more compliance to meet the market demands and we can only meet those requirements if the producers are doing their bit.

The market doesn’t take a break Exporters raised on their first fortnightly call post-Christmas that the industry is getting better about supplying regularly to export customers, but suggested there is still evidence that the priority of taking a break with family over the Christmas period wins over the accountability to meet the harvest, packing and export plans that enable those market contracts to be met.

A cultural change is required says Chris Frost from JP Exports. “Our industry depends on customers, who supply our end consumer. To keep customers happy we have to ensure there is consistent supply to meet consumers demand throughout the holiday period. ” Steve Trickett of Global Fresh added that “we don’t want consumers to take a break from buying avocado, so we cannot take a break from our supply to them of avocado” The message for us all is clear: As the industry develops more markets, increases volumes and increase the number of customers, collectively we need to be more disciplined in our supply chain. That’s growers, harvesters, packers and exporters. We need to transition out of the mind-set that we pick, pack and export when it suits us. We need to pick, pack and export when it suits the market.

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The New Zealand Market

By Glen Dunseath, Managing Director, Zeafruit glen@zeafruit.co.nz

As we approach the end of an extraordinary season for New Zealand market values, the biggest challenge for marketers may well be finding sufficient volumes to see out the season.

Although volume has been moderate, fruit value has been high and New Zealand consumer demand is still on the rise.

Trade pre-Christmas in the New Zealand market was

solid without being outstanding and there was a reduction in promotional (“on special”) activity as marketers and their retail partners both aimed to maximise value and manage available supply to ensure continuity. With good food service and wholesale demand, as well as some good weather across the country, product flowed very well across the holiday period.

As a result, January trade has really run to plan with very light volumes early leading to some very high values, before export packing kicked in and values settled. Settled is relative when OGR values are still in the late $20 bracket.

As we look ahead into February and March it seems clear

the current strong returns should continue, or potentially lift, as fruit volumes are perceived as being limited. We will see how much fruit has been left to hang for this period, as traditionally more comes to light than is ever accounted for in forecasting.

It does however seem to be clear that trading in April and May will be on very limited volumes and, for the first time for a number of years, we may see a significant gap in supply before new season supply gets underway.

Is that a bad thing with a potentially heavy 2016/17 crop – maybe not?

The new season crop doesn’t seem that far away which is a little scary, however more on that next time around.

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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Regional Roundup News and views from your NZAGA Regional Representatives

Roger Barber - Mid Northland Region

barbers@ihug.co.nz

09-02-16

The New Zealand horticultural industry has just cause to celebrate the recent signing of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, which is estimated to be worth $26 million annually in horticultural exports alone, to the national economy. As most of this will be the result of tariff reductions, this will be of particular significance to the avocado industry as we seek to build our export trade with some of the other 11 signatories.

On the local front, we celebrate the end of another export season that has seen firm prices throughout for both export and domestic market fruit. In my pre-season Regional Round-up report for the midNorth, I expressed disappointment with the level of crop predicted for the 2015-16 season. This has proved to be the case, with a light crop and quality issues (particularly small fruit size) and sunburn from poor canopy development. This follows the trend to falling production in the district over recent years.

These production woes date back to spring of 2007, when a massive storm uprooted trees, damaged roots and saturated the ground for an extended period. This event was followed by stormy

conditions for the following two years. The net effect of this high rainfall coupled with constraints in soil drainage has led to poor root health, which is one of the major causes of declining production, especially on older trees. Attempts to overcome these problems by tree injection with severe pruning and canopy management have only been partially successful.

The medium to long term solution to the problem is total orchard renovation, including supplementary drainage and replanting with new clonal rootstocks such as Dusa and Bounty. The present frustration is that due to demand, mainly from new orchard development, nurseries are unable to cope with the demand for clonal trees and are unable to supply for two to three years.

On a brighter note, much of this new orchard development is also occurring in the mid-North region, with large-scale new orchard establishments underway on sand country on the Tapora Peninsula in the Kaipara Harbour. Hopefully future production from these, and other new orchard developments, will benefit from the signing of the TPPA as we diversify into new markets.

Dave Flett - Bay of Plenty Representative

dave.flett@yahoo.co.nz

03-02-16

Well, here we are in the midst of an El Niùo summer, although I think this time we were forewarned so hopefully the effects won’t be too catastrophic.

and I am hoping this will always be the case.

I am keeping good records of what goes into and what I get off both blocks, so I can make comparisons for their productivity per hectare.

I went to several field days late last year and was pleased to see there was information being disseminated to growers - having not been through an El NiĂąo event before, I feel this helped me and many others to be better prepared. So far I have managed to keep my trees in good shape even while they are trying to hold a large crop for the coming season.

With this coming season being my first harvest of the smaller trees, I have a plan in place which I hope will allow me more flexibility around picking time, while also minimising my harvesting costs (my largest outgoing for the big trees).

What I have noticed is how much easier it is to read and look after my 500 smaller trees (4 years old, close centre planting) compared to my 110 larger trees (15 years old). As I am planning to keep these around 2.4m in height,

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My other two major costs, spraying and fertilising, I have found to be much easier to manage on the small trees and also far more cost-effective as I do it all myself.

Pruning will be the one thing I will spend more time on with the small trees than the big

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trees, but as I am doing it all from the ground and more often, it should also be more costeffective.

The one thing I (and many of my colleagues) are dying to see is the comparisons at the end of each season between the two blocks.

As the new representative for the Bay of Plenty region, I plan to try and get to see more orchards and also meet as many other growers as possible to learn more. I would like to be the person for growers to go to should they want information or have questions for me to ask at Board meetings.

I plan to start arranging regular discussion

David French - Rest of New Zealand

groups around the Bay of Plenty that I will facilitate and invite any growers keen to come along for an informal chat and look around an orchard. The idea is for me to get to meet more growers on a casual basis and vice-versa.

I will move them around different orchards all around the Bay of Plenty so anyone and everyone who wants to attend can do so. Watch for more on this in the next issue of Avoscene.

In the meantime, keep giving those trees as much TLC as you can, and don’t be too disappointed about the amount of fruit drop, as the trees are trying to keep themselves in good shape for this big season ahead.

Hope to meet up with many of you soon.

famille@ps.gen.nz

04-02-16

Happy New Year.

Fruit set for the coming season in the South Auckland area is generally not too bad, although colder blocks seem to have more cukes and less fruit.

This seems very obvious in my orchard, with the four warmest blocks looking good, and then as we move to the lower end of the colder blocks there is less and less fruit, with the coldest half of the coldest block having virtually no fruit at all.

There is quite a bit of fruit drop occurring now and on some trees this is very welcome. However, there are still parts of trees with exposed fruit and very little leaves and I will be attempting to get around the orchard and remove the worst of these in the next couple of weeks. I see no point in growing undersize sunburnt fruit and that’s all they will be.

I have spent a bit of time up in a Hydralada over the last month, picking a few late fruit (in between going to the beach) and would recommend it to all growers (I would also recommend going to the beach!). Get up in your trees and see what’s happening! Even if you have to borrow a

Hydralada from a contractor for a couple of hours, get up there and observe what’s going on. There is always something new to learn.

For example, I have noticed thrip damage appears more obvious on the outside of rows trees adjacent to shelter, so I will spray internal shelters now as well, whenever I put on an insecticide.

I mentioned in a previous article that I had a “pruning paradigm shift” after Darryl Boardman, an Australian grower, visited my orchard last June.

Because of this my pruning is completed now.

It was actually finished late October, whereas in previous years I would only just be starting now.

I believe this has given my replacement wood/ buds a full summer of sunlight which I am hoping will give me not just more flowers lower down the tree, but also more importantly better quality lower flowers which should have more chance of setting fruit next spring.

A big advantage of pruning early is that the tree doesn’t waste resources producing flowers/ fruitlets that may get pruned off in autumn.

January has been hot and wet which the trees seem to love, so long may it continue.

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Grower Letters 05-01-16

I am writing in regard to research into alternate bearing and have read the article in the September Avoscene.

of advantage to the health of the trees and would not in any way have anything to do with alternate bearing.

It mentions temperature in the article. I agree temperature may have a small effect, but I do not believe it is a major factor as it is not a mechanical function which occurs on a regular basis.

We grow avocados as a commercial venture and it makes financial planning a nightmare. A poor season once every few years is probably a fact of life when dealing with Mother Nature, but having no fruit (or very little fruit) every alternate year is totally unacceptable. I would like to see more resources being allocated into the research of alternate bearing and am interested to know what percentage of R & D funding is being allocated to this issue.

In our orchard I have noted over the past few years during flowering that we do not get the strong smell of pollen we used to get on really hot days. This leads me to question whether the insecticides we use are affecting the dynamics of the trees.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards, Clyde Stevens, Crystal Springs Family Trust

It is only in the past few years we have suffered from alternate bearing. We have done nothing different in the orchard to previous years apart from pruning, which I feel is

Hi Clyde, Thank you for taking the time to write this letter.

We completely agree that New Zealand’s irregular production is our biggest challenge - obviously for the grower relying on income from his or her crop, but also for New Zealand and export marketers who are tasked with marketing irregular volumes of avocados.

Addressing irregular bearing is a priority and we are investing in not only understanding the factors that contribute to irregular bearing, but also in developing and assessing strategies to combat it. This is not a trivial problem and the answer is equally complex, but we are dedicated to improving the irregular bearing situation for the benefit of our industry.

to minimise their impact, as well as actively combatting the trees natural tendencies through on orchard management.

Our MBIE project: pruning to balance, is working to provide tools for growers to enable them to influence the balance of their trees.

A number of projects are looking at understanding stresses on trees, which impact the productivity and may also act as triggers of irregular bearing. These projects include orchard analysis, temperature effects, irrigation, PGP-tree decline, canopy management, six spotted mite phenology and epidemiology, leaf roller mating disruption. As you can see we are investing a lot of resources into irregular bearing and temperature is just one of the

Current Research Effort into Irregular Bearing

factors we are interested in.

Underpinning our research into irregular bearing is the idea that

This is a big topic and we would like to include more information in

irregular bearing is a combination of the trees natural tendency to

an article in the next issue of Avoscene.

alternately bear combined with external factors/stressors that also impact tree balance both negatively and positively. Our projects are aimed at understanding the stressors and establishing best practices

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Kind regards, Phillip West, R&D Officer

Comment

20-11-15

“Someone is stealing my avocados!” or as others have put it, my livelihood I hope the Ministry of Justice picks up on this article because apart from being a victim of a crime, I feel that I am also a victim of the system! I think the latter hurts more.

A bit over 12 months ago I found a gentleman known to me taking avocados off some trees that I had recently bought.

Not one or two for a meal but with picking bags and crates lined out behind his vehicle. He was taking fruit that I had just paid for. They were being sold at the local growers’ market and other places. The theft was observed by three people and relevant photos taken.

I have to salute the integrity of the local growers market in Whangarei who immediately got rid of him.

I am told that what I saw was the tip of the iceberg. But what we had were photos and facts for that event.

In the ensuing community discussions it came out that there was suspicious activity in other orchards that may be linked to this event.

The court processes took from September 2014 to June 2015 to get the case bought to court. There always seemed to be something deferring it.

In June, the prosecution was supposed to present the case but due to annual leave, and whatever happens behind closed doors, no prosecution turned up on the day.

I have had an apology from the police but what I cannot

understand is why a Judge took it upon himself/herself to throw the case out when the culprit was caught ‘green’ handed.

This was a case of theft of commercial quantities of fruit. Are assaults thrown out or car theft thrown out?

There are some principles here and I have more problems with the Judge than with the person who took the fruit. The Judge has trivialised what for some people in our industry is financially ruining. This is no different to stock rustling or shop-lifting.

In Chile they have armed guards in look-out towers overlooking the hillsides for thieves. How far do we need to go?

So now I have cameras and visit the orchard at all sorts of times. I have a better understanding of the signs to look out for. Don’t think if you are down a right-of-way that you will be immune.

I am aware of booby traps mentioned to me by a grower (a passing conversation at a conference so can’t name him).

But whatever happens… if you catch someone in your orchard with commercial quantities of fruit, you must contact the police and ensure these people are prosecuted.

As I have also learnt, you must also follow up on the case.

Otherwise the next time you hear of a theft of fruit, you should be ashamed!

RossWoods, Maungakaramea.

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Industry News Kiwi love affair with avocados growing stronger

Newsroom

More New Zealanders are declaring their love for avocados than ever before and Nadia Lim has devised a special Valentine’s Day treat that’s sure to tempt any chocolate lover.

The latest research conducted by Nielsen Homescan shows 90,000 more Kiwi households are buying avocados than in previous seasons.

In fact, New Zealanders bought avocados 5.5 times last season on average (compared with just 4.8 times in 2013-14) so now is a great time to experiment with new avocado recipes.

Cook, dietician and avocado lover, Nadia Lim, has created a mouthwatering avocado chocolate ganache cake - a twist on a traditional chocolate cake.

“The chocolate ganache on this cake uses avocados and coconut milk as the delicious ingredients that give it its creaminess, however the whole cake is also dairy free! The cake itself is super-moist and rich, with the help of rich avocado oil.

“Avocados are simply amazing when whizzed up with melted chocolate, producing a thick, silky, creamy ganache.”

Nadia says if you’re not planning to eat the cake straight away, you can freeze it before it is iced. But the ganache is best made fresh.

“This is a great recipe to try on Valentine’s Day because it is decadent, moist and a total treat.”

“Introducing more avocados into the diet of your loved one is a delicious gift,” Nadia says.

This delicious recipe can be found on page 61.

Nadia Lim.

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Young leader from NZ is awarded a bursary to participate in the PMA Emerging Leaders Program Newsroom

Midge Munro, Communications Manager at New Zealand Avocado, has been awarded an AUD $8,000 bursary to attend the 2016 PMA Emerging Leaders Program, to be held in Arizona, USA, in March 2016.

This bursary has been supported by Produce Marketing Association (PMA) Australia-New Zealand and Nuffield Australia for a young emerging leader from the horticultural industry.

The programme includes activity over 10 months from February 2016 - with the highlight being the intensive four day on-campus component in March at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona.

Midge’s career with New Zealand Avocado, the peak body for the export of avocados from New Zealand, spans over seven years. She sets the strategy for the delivery of information to the industry’s 1350 growers, and works with marketers and exporters to promote avocados to consumers in New Zealand, Australia and Asia.

She is delighted to have been selected as the inaugural recipient of this bursary.

“I see my participation in the programme as an exciting opportunity to learn, engage, collaborate and build my own capability to perform and deliver real value in the horticulture industry,” she says.

“The demands on my role have increased following the establishment of the Primary Growth Partnership, the ongoing work to gain access to China for New Zealand avocados and increasing consumer demands for safer and healthier food.

“The global networking and engagement offered by the programme, the opportunity to understand finance and the real demands of managing a business will be extremely

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valuable and enable me to provide greater support to the growers and exporters I work with.”

Midge aspires to be a highly capable leader in the produce industry, which she is passionate about.

“I believe that the PMA Foundation Emerging Leaders Program will provide the step change I need to set that pathway in place.”

The PMA Foundation Emerging Leaders Program is a multifaceted, rigorous program for 36 potential leaders from all segments of the global produce and floral supply chain to embrace responsibility and manage the challenges and opportunities inherent in future leadership roles within the industry. The program includes a four-day “on campus” component, online modules and a capstone course at PMA’s Fresh Summit, a primary platform for connecting with the horticultural supply chain.

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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 April 8, 2016.

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

Avoscene March 2016 ne May 2015

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Discover why we are the pick of the crop Call (07) 573 0085 for more information

www.trevelyan.co.nz

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Avoscene March 2016

Food Act into effect 1 March 2016 Newsroom

The Food Act 2014 comes into effect on Tuesday 1 March 2016. The aim of the new Food Act is to strengthen food safety in New Zealand, and it incorporates risk-based food safety measures and requirements.

What do avocado growers need to do?

If, before 1 March 2016 you werealready in the business of selling avocados, no further action is required at this stage.

Existing horticultural food businesses will transition to the new requirements between 1 July 2018 and 28 February 2019.

If you are a new avocado grower that commenced business of selling avocados after 1 March 2016, you need to apply to your local council from 1 March 2016 to register as a national programme level 1 business, prior to selling the avocados.

If you are an existing grower and are intending to purchase another avocado orchard after 1 March 2016 you may also be affected.

National programmes

Working under a national programme is the way that lowerrisk food businesses operate under the Food Act 2014. There are three levels of national programmes, which are based on the food safety risk of the activities that a business does.

Horticultural food producers and horticultural packing operations (packhouses) are deemed lower risk and are

classified under national programme Level 1.

All national programmes require: • Registration of business details with your local council • Compliance with relevant Food Regulations and Notices •R ecord keeping to show you’re growing and selling safe food • One or more visits from a verifier recognised by MPI Existing food safety schemes

National programme 1 requirements are the minimum legal requirements that you must meet.

If you belong to an existing food safety scheme, for example, NZGAP, it is likely that you will already meet the national programme 1 requirements.

Food Act Transition period

The Food Act 2014 comes into force on 1 March 2016. It applies to all new food businesses from that date but existing horticultural food businesses will transition to the new requirements between 1 July 2018 and 28 February 2019.

An application for registration should be made no later than three months before the end of the transition period, which in this case is November 30, 2018.

Further information

Further information on the Food Act 2014 and National Programme Level 1 registration process can be found at www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety/food-act-2014 .

If you have questions about registering as a national programme level 1 business for avocados, please contact Bevan Jelley, bevan.jelley@nzavocado.co.nz or phone 07 571 6147.

Avoscene March 2016

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New faces Jarrod Redwood General Manager – Operations & Procurement, Just Avocados Ltd

Newsroom

Just Avocados Ltd is pleased to announce the appointment of Jarrod Redwood to the newly created position of General Manager – Operations & Procurement.

Jarrod will commence duties in early March and have primary responsibility for all of JAL’s postharvest operations and procurement activity, in addition to management duties with parent company Global Fresh NZ Ltd. In joining the senior management team Jarrod will oversee supply, packing, cold storage, ripening, distribution and service provision

components involved in supporting associate company Zeafruit Ltd. With over 15 years’ career experience in the produce industry, Jarrod brings a wealth of skills to the business gained most recently as Avocado Manager at Freshmax, and prior to that building his own fresh produce provedoring business which he sold to Bidvest three years ago. Jarrod also spent some years in Turners & Growers developing his knowledge of fresh produce and effective supply chain management.

Jarrod has also performed industry roles, having been elected last

Jarrod Redwood.

year by AVEC to one of two Exporter Directorships on the NZ Avocado Industry Council - a role which he has now stepped down from.

Calendar of events NZAGA & AIC Board meetings • 23 March • 28 April

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BOP Roadshow • 12 April Details TBC

Far North Roadshow • 19 April Details TBC

Opotiki Field Day • 4 May 96 Armstrong Road

Industry matters Upgraded facility for signing into industry website A reminder that NZ Avocado has upgraded the sign in process for the industry website www.nzavocado.co.nz/ industry and associated online applications.

Newsroom

Please remember that your user name is your firstname.lastname, for example john.smith - your PPIN is no longer required for logging on.

Your password is what you currently use to sign into the industry website. If you cannot remember what this password is then there is a forgotten password function in the new sign in screen which will allow you to reset this easily.

If you are having issues signing in, please ensure you are using a preferred internet browser – these are listed in the sign in instructions.

It is advised that you update your browser to ensure you are using the latest version, as this is good security practice.You may also find your general browsing experience is improved by using one of the following browsers:

Chrome: Download https://www.google.co.nz/chrome/ browser/desktop Firefox: Download https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/ firefox/new/ For instructions for signing into the website, go to http:// industry.nzavocado.co.nz/news/files/Industry_website_ member_sign_in_instructions_03.11.pdf If in doubt, please call Jo or Jay on 07 571 6147.

Winner of Aspiring Director Award chooses to get first taste of governance with NZ Avocado Aspiring directors in New Zealand are recognised each year through the professional Institute of Directors branches and are given the opportunity to observe a working board for a year.

This year’s Bay of Plenty branch Aspiring Director Award winner chose the AIC Board to give him his first taste of a governance role.

The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a national organisation providing professional development for boards and individual directors as well as advice for organisations considering setting up their first board.

Simon Arcus IOD CEO awarding the IOD Aspiring Director Award to Bryan Graham.

The Bay of Plenty branch’s vision is to help members build better businesses, to prosper both the public and private sector through excellence in governance. To build awareness and competency in governance in both the SMEs and Maori interests, while engaging experienced directors in their membership activities.

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Newsroom

The IoD helps not only established boards and experienced directors, but also those aspiring to be involved in governance in the future through programmes such as the Aspiring Director Award.

“We approach different boards each year that are of a high calibre, and ask if they would like to be a potential board for the aspiring director, we were delighted when the AIC board accepted our offer,” says Glenn.

“The focus of the Award is to identify individuals with potential and to foster the discipline of good governance through the acquisition of technical knowledge in addition to creating opportunities for networking via branch events and functions,” says Glenn Snelgrove, IoD Bay of Plenty Branch Chair.

“Increasing capability and recognising young leaders is something I am passionate about and I am very happy that we are creating a closer relationship with the IoD, which will support the continued development of the AIC Directors,” says Jen Scoular, NZ Avocado CEO.

The Aspiring Director Award is designed to foster upcoming talent in governance through mentoring, practical experience, and formal governance training.

Local innovator, Bryan Graham, was the 2015 recipient of the BOP Aspiring Director Award and chose out of several options the opportunity to observe the AIC Board for one year.

The Aspiring Director Award is presented each year to an applicant chosen by a panel of judges. The applicant must demonstrate governance development commitment (i.e. complete The Governance Development Programme or other relevant courses).

Bryan is a science leader at Rotorua-based Scion, the Crown research institute charged with driving innovation and growth in forestry. A recognised expert on informatics, he leads teams specialising in computer science, geomatics and complex systems.

The award offers a $3000 prize made up of a one year IoD membership and $2000 to spend on IoD professional development courses. Additionally, the recipient is placed on a Bay of Plenty board, spending a year observing the dynamics of a commercial operation while participating in high-level board discussion.

“We welcome Bryan to the board table and hope the experience will set him up well to continue on with his governance career,” says Ashby Whitehead, NZAGA and AIC Chair.

El Niño update Soil moisture deficits for the main growing regions haven’t been too bad but the effects of El Niño are predicted to continue through to March meaning vigilance is still needed.

Sporadic rainfall has kept soil moisture levels reasonably topped up with levels similar to historical averages. NIWA’s regional predictions for the January to March period in Northland, Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty are for temperatures to be above average, rainfall to be below average and soil moisture to be below average.

We encourage growers to monitor their soil moisture levels with whatever equipment they have available, to ensure trees have enough water but are not over-irrigated. Digging a few holes with a spade is better than nothing and your trees may thank you for it.

For growers with tensiometers, you should be starting

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to think about irrigating when your 30cm tensiometer is reading 15-20kPa in sandy soils and 25-40kPa for clay loam soils. Stop when your 60cm tensiometers is reading between 5-10kPa for both soil types to prevent over-watering.

For more information on irrigation, refer to page 36 of our Growing Productive Trees guide, which can be found on our industry website under the 'Orchard Mngt' tab.

Recommended reading

By Phillip West, R&D Officer, New Zealand Avocado

phillip.west@nzavocado.co.nz

With harvesting out of the way, many growers may be flicking through the travel sections of the paper, eyeing up a trip to escape winter, but it’s important not to take your eye off the health of your trees. Managing tree health is a year-round commitment, with a range of factors needing to be considered and managed to keep trees producing well, not just this year but for the years to come. Autumn is a key time to apply phosphonate as it is often a time when the root system is more active than the canopy, leading to the majority of the applied phosphonate making it to the roots. Keep an eye out for the start of an autumn root flush to collect roots for testing and to signal it is time to apply phosphonate.

Sheard. It’s been adapted from the South African Avocado Growers’ Association Avoinfo Newsletter, 175:11-15 (December 2010).

The article I’ve chosen for this issue’s Recommended Reading is:

Topics covered include: Soil Selection, Organic Amendments to soil, Inorganic Nutrition, Tolerant Rootstocks, Irrigation Management and Chemical Control. A few paragraphs are written about each one, which are a well-balanced blend of key issues and technical information.

Newsroom

“Integrated management of Phytophthora root rot, the “Pegg Wheel” updated” by B. Nigel Wolstenholme and Andrew

The article can be found by doing an internet search of the title.

It provides a great breakdown of six key factors relating to phytophthora control in the orchard to minimise plant stress and promote root health. The article is written from a South African perspective but the subject matter relates to production in New Zealand, with many of the same factors being identified by the growers who are part of the PGP: Tree Decline working group based in the Far North.

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: • March: Canopy density, pages 30-31 • March to April: Summer flush, pages 16-17 • March to April: Roots, pages 28-29 • March to May: Quality of flush, pages 18-23 • 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 > and select Orchard Management Guidelines from the drop down box.

This workbook complements the Reading Your Trees guide and allows you to record your assessments.

Avoscene March 2016

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Avocado news from the world Australia: Avocados in demand A sudden avocado shortage has seen prices rise to unprecedented levels this year as supply struggles to keep up with demand.

Owner and operator of Crossies Cardos in Echuca Andrew Crossman sells his avocados privately to local cafes and restaurants in Echuca, and some in Bendigo, and sells direct at the farmers market.

About two weeks ago he was approached by a cafe owner who was desperately seeking avocados after being quoted $100 a tray at the wholesale price.

While Mr Crossman had heard some conjecture about price fixing, he believed the shortage was more likely to be a basic supply-and-demand issue.

A report last week indicated that the low price of avocados in December created the shortage, however, chief executive of the grower-owned body Avolution Antony Allen said this was not an accurate conclusion and said a slightly higher price would not have guaranteed a better supply now.

Wet weather in Western Australia and New Zealand has slowed deliveries to the market, Mr Allen said.

Avocados can only be harvested when dry as the rain compromises the fruit’s quality by causing it to rot.

Avocados are also sourced from South Australia, Victoria and Queensland.

Mr Allen said the avocado industry was currently experiencing ‘‘uncharted territory’’ and he had never seen prices this high.

Currently, a tray of avocados is selling for an unusually high wholesale price of about $80, virtually double the standard tray price. One avocado is being sold for around $7.

Newsroom

“Demand has continued to increase over the last 15 years and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down,” Avocados Australia chief executive John Tyas said.

Mr Crossman said he has not increased the price of his avocados and his main concern at this point was that this event could push major supermarkets to turn to imports in the future. “(The shortage) gives Coles and Woolies reason to go outside the country more,” Mr Crossman said.

“We’ve got to be very careful that the product doesn’t get to a point where it’s outrageous.”

However Mr Tyas said a lot of the international market, mainly South America, could not access the Australian market because of quarantine laws.

Despite the current shortage, Mr Allen and Mr Tyas believed that supplies would begin returning to normal in March once the avocados harvest in Queensland.

Mr Tyas said there had been large plantings of avocado trees all over Australia recently, particularly in the south-west, and he expected that by this time in the next few years there would be much higher volumes and therefore more stable pricing of avocados.

Barham Avocados operator Katrina Myers sells to the wholesale market and said she was being offered double the price for trays of the Hass and Reed varieties.

“I wish we had more avocados,” Mrs Myers said.

She acknowledged that it was difficult for restaurants when prices were so high, but was confident the gap in the supply chain would not last long once the trees in Queensland harvest.

“Prices have been strong over the last four to five years... (the shortage) has definitely happened before and demand goes up at this time of year anyway,” Mrs Myers said.

Source: http://www.mmg.com.au/local-news/country-news/avocadosin-demand-1.105754

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US(CA): Avocado crop expected to be up 40%

Newsroom

This year’s California avocado crop is projected to be 392.5 million pounds. “If it materializes, it would be a 40 percent bump up from last year,” says Jan DeLyser with the California Avocado Commission.

“The rainfall that California is experiencing currently is very helpful in developing a good size fruit. It brings relief to all agricultural products, including avocados,” adds DeLyser.

Alternate-bearing nature

In addition, the alternate-bearing nature of the trees is expected to have an effect on this year’s crop. The Hass variety, California’s main avocado variety, tends to have an alternate-bearing nature.

“During the last two years, the crop was on the lighter side and the trees are ready to produce again. The first avocados I’ve tried have a creamy, great flavor and we are looking forward to a solid year,” shared DeLyser.

High density planting

Total California avocado acreage is slightly down this year. Some smaller growers in the San Diego region have discontinued their operations. At the same time, some new trees have been planted north of Los Angeles. “Higher density planting seeds are having a positive impact on per acre productivity in California,” mentioned DeLyser.

Peak from April through August

Volume of California avocados starts to build up in March and peaks between April and August with availability into September and October.

Availability of California avocados is limited in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, but there will be some targeted promotions for California retailers, in particular smaller chains. The next big event for California avocados is Cinco de Mayo.

Source: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/151957/ US(CA)-Avocado-crop-expected-to-be-up-40-percent?utm_ campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=ed1&utm_source=s1

High prices at origin for Spanish avocados The demand for avocados is high in a market with lower volumes available compared to last season at this time, which is translating into higher prices.

In addition to the lower available volumes from Chile and Israel, the Hass avocado production in Spain is also about 20% lower than last year due to heat waves during the flowering and fruit setting.

At the moment, Spain is harvesting and selling Hass avocados. The average price paid at origin stands at around 2.40 Euro per kilo, which is “a very good price for the grower,” according to the president of the Spanish Association of Tropical Fruit Producers, Miguel Gutiérrez.

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Regarding the acreage planted with avocados, Gutiérrez explains that “there is a positive growing trend in Spain and demand from growers is so high that there is a two year waiting list to be able to purchase avocado seedlings.”

However, he also stresses that “the sector is undergoing renovation, either through the planting of younger trees or with new plant material with more intensive frames and better standards in general; therefore, the net growth is perhaps not as pronounced”.

Source: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/151972/High-pricesat-origin-for-Spanish-avocados?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_ medium=ed1&utm_source=s2

Mexico: Avocado from Jalisco awaiting order to enter US

"We've been complying with all the requirements made by the United States since October last year and the people from SAGARPA and the Ministry of Economy representing our Government in this negotiation closed it last November. We are expecting the announcement of authorization for Jalisco to export avocados to the United States to be made at any moment at the beginning of this year," the official said.

Michoacan is the only state authorized

So far, the producers of avocado from Jalisco export their product to the US through companies based in the neighboring state of Michoacan, as it currently is the only state that can make direct export of this fruit to that country.

According to statistics from Seder, Jalisco currently has 8,600 hectares certified for export in 12 municipalities of the state. However, according to experts, once exports to the United States are authorized many producers will convert their less profitable crops to avocado crops.

"We currently have 8,600 certified hectares. In March 2013 there were 1,500 certified hectares in two municipalities. The opening of the US market will attract many producers. It is a crop for which there is an expectation of many years of market penetration and certainly at good prices," said Padilla Gutierrez.

The most productive area in the world

Even though Michoacan is currently the leading global producer of avocado and accounts for 80% of Mexico's production, the head of Seder said Jalisco had the highest productivity per hectare in the world.

Newsroom

The head of the Ministry Rural Development (Seder) of Jalisco, Hector Padilla, said that Jalisco should start exporting avocados directly to the United States in a matter of weeks because the state already complied with all of the requirements imposed by the United States' Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The state official stated that the use of technology and innovation in avocado crop in the state Jalisco had allowed producers to harvest up to 25 tons per hectare, while the top producers in Michoacan only harvested up to 18 tons per hectare.

"We have an exceptional productivity with an enviable quality," said Hector Padilla.

However, according to the Association of Producers and Exporters of Avocado from Jalisco (Apeajal), even with the permission of the United States, Jalisco producers need to work on internal factors of their businesses, such as traceability and controlling the mobilization of the fruit so they can take advantage of the opening of the US market.

There are some 3,000 producers in Jalisco and in 2015 they harvested more than 120,000 tons of avocado, 40,000 of which were exported, mainly to Japan and Canada.

The municipalities that are certificated to export avocados are Farias, Zapotlรกn Great, Zapotiltic, Concepciรณn de Buenos Aires, Mazamitla, Sayula, Tapalpa, La Manzanilla de la Paz, San Gabriel, and the Juarez Valley, in the south of Jalisco, as well as the recently added Arandas and Valle de Guadalupe, from the region of los Altos.

Source: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/151953/ Mexico-Avocado-from-Jalisco-awaiting-order-to-enter-US?utm_ campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=ed1&utm_source=s3

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Leafroller mating disruption in avocado orchards

By Nicola Mauchline, Scientist (Applied Entomology), Plant & Food Research

nicola.mauchline@plantandfood.co.nz

At NZ Avocado’s Grower Forum last year, one of the presentations that truly stood out was the one presented by PFR’s Nicola Mauchline on Leafroller Mating Disruption. Nicola shared the fascinating research on PFR’s investigation on the use of leafroller pheromones to disrupt the mating process. Below Nicola delves into a more detailed update.

Fundamentals of mating disruption

On the Orchard

Mating disruption (MD) uses sex pheromones to disrupt the mating of leafroller moths. Sex pheromones are produced and emitted by the female moth to attract a male for mating.

The male moth detects the pheromone and follows the pheromone plume (scent trail) to locate the female.

When mating disruption is used in an orchard, synthetic pheromones are released by pheromone-impregnated dispensers, at a concentration 10,000 times higher than that emitted by an individual female moth. The concentrated pheromone creates an environment where the male leafroller is no longer able to orient towards and locate individual females for mating. In many pipfruit orchards leafrollers are effectively managed using mating disruption and one or two selective insecticide applications per season.

In this preliminary trial we investigated the potential for using mating disruption in avocado orchards. A synthetic blend of pheromones used in pipfruit orchards, is active against three species of leafroller, including the brownheaded leafroller (Ctenopseustis obliquana), the greenheaded leafroller (Planotortrix octo) and the lightbrown apple moth (Epiphyas

postvittana); all species are present in avocado orchards (Figure 1) (Stevens et al. 1995).

Proof of concept for avocados

Methods Mating disruption was trialled in avocado orchards in the Bay of Plenty during 2014-2015. Commercially available pheromone dispensers (Isomate® 3NZLR) were used in six blocks on five orchards (a total of 9.85 hectares) in the Katikati region, at a rate of 800 dispensers per hectare. The dispensers were attached within an avocado tree using a curtain hook (Figure 2). A further six blocks on the same orchards were used as untreated control blocks. All blocks received the grower’s own spray programme.

Assessments

1. Leafroller trapping and caterpillar searches Pheromone traps were placed in each block for each leafroller species targeted by Isomate 3NZLR, and for three additional leafroller species also known to occur within avocado orchards (the black lyre leafroller (Cnephasia

Figure 1. Leafroller moths: from left brownheaded leafroller (Ctenopseustis spp.), greenheaded leafroller (Planotortrix spp.) and lightbrown apple moth (Epiphyas postvittana).

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2. Tethered females

dispenser location.

jactatana), brownheaded leafroller (Ctenopseustis herana) and greenheaded leafroller (P. excessana)). The traps were situated along the edge and inside all blocks, with traps inside the blocks placed at the same height as the dispensers (Figure 3).

Each trap contained a lure for a single species of leafroller.

The lure emits a greater concentration of pheromone than a female moth (but not greater than the MD dispensers). If mating disruption is working male moths should not be able to locate the individual traps, indicated by the number of moths caught on the sticky bases within each trap.

On the Orchard

Figure 2. Isomate® 3NZLR pheromone dispenser (red twist tie) attached to a curtain hook. Flagging tape was attached to allow for easy identification of the

The tethered female assessment is regarded as the most direct method of assessing the effectiveness of mating disruption. Virgin female moths were tethered into traps and placed within the six MD and six untreated blocks (Figure 4). If mating is successfully disrupted, any male moths in the orchard will be unable to find the tethered females and they will remain virgins. If mating disruption is not working, the males will find the virgin moths and mate with them. After three to four days the moths were collected and dissected to determine the individual mating status of each moth.

A female moth was confirmed as mated if a sperm mass (spermatophore) had been transferred from a male of the same species to the female. Any eggs laid before dissection were also collected and the fertility of the egg batches was determined.

Figure 4.Virgin female leafroller moths tethered (a), and placed inside a trap (b).

Key findings

Throughout the trial (five month duration) there was a 98.4% reduction in the average number of male moths caught in the blocks with dispensers compared with numbers caught in the untreated blocks (Figure 5). When a trap no longer catches moths (or catches a small number of moths) ‘trap shutdown’ is said to have occurred; this is evidence that the MD treatment applied has been successful.

Figure 3. A pheromone trap (white circle) and an Isomate® 3NZLR dispenser (blue circle) within an avocado tree.

In addition to the pheromone traps, the leaves and fruit of 10 randomly selected trees from each of the 12 blocks were searched for leafroller larvae once a fortnight.

Any live larvae found were taken back to the Te Puke Research Centre for rearing and subsequent identification.

Of the caterpillars collected from the searches of leaves and fruit, 59% were identified as brownheaded leafroller, with the greenheaded leafroller species prominent in the more southern orchards. The lightbrown apple moth was abundant within all of the trial orchards as evidenced by pheromone trap catches, however, larvae were not found feeding on the foliage of avocados.

Female moths were not mated when tethered within a block

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On the Orchard

Figure 6. Lightbrown apple moth egg batches: a) an unfertile egg batch laid by a moth tethered in a block treated with pheromone dispensers, b) a fertile egg batch laid by a moth tethered in an untreated block.

Figure 5.The number of male leafrollers caught in pheromone traps per week from January 2015 to May 2015.Top chart lightbrown apple moth (Epiphyas postvittana); middle chart greenheaded leafroller (Planotortrix octo); bottom chart brownheaded leafroller (Ctenopseustis obliquana). MD = mating disruption.

treated with pheromone dispensers, whereas an average of 55% of the female moths within the untreated blocks were mated (Figure 6).

Beyond proof of concept

The results of the trial were encouraging, with trap shutdown achieved and an absence of female moth mating for the three leafroller species targeted by the Isomate 3NZLR dispensers.

There was little or no reduction in the number of male moths caught in the traps between the MD and untreated blocks for the three leafroller species not targeted by MD. Developing a pheromone blend optimised for the leafroller complex present on avocados is a research priority, and Plant & Food Research are investing in this. Once a suitable

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blend is available, this will require testing alongside current insecticide programmes. A Sustainable Farming Fund application has been submitted to support the development of this technology for avocados. An optimised blend has the potential to provide an innovative and environmently sustainable alternative for managing a key pest of avocados by reducing reliance on chemical controls.

The author would like to thank the orchardists involved in this trial, and to acknowledge the Avocado Industry Council Limited, Etec Crop Solutions Ltd, and Plant & Food Research for supporting and funding this work.

Reference Stevens PS, McKenna CE, Steven D 1995. Management for Avocados in New Zealand. Proceedings of theWorld Avocado Congress III, pp. 429–432.

Increase of passionvine hoppers seen in the Bay of Plenty

By Brad Siebert, Biosecurity & Programme Manager, NZ Avocado and Tayah Ryan, Fruitfed Supplies

brad.siebert@nzavocado.co.nz

tryan@pggwrightson.co.nz

The Passionvine Hopper (Scolypopa australis) has a wide host range in New Zealand, with the adult bug commonly seen within avocado and kiwifruit orchards from January through to late May.

On the Orchard

Over recent months there has been a sharp increase in reports from growers and AvoGreen® monitors seeing both the insect and the resulting honey dew left behind on leaves and fruit.

This sugary exudate, which may sit on the fruit for a number of months, creates an environment for surface mould to develop.

Although the female bug may cause minor damage when inserting eggs into thin twigs or new shoots, it is the increase in honey dew and resulting mould that is starting to raise questions about possible impacts this pest may have on avocado fruit quality.

There are four potential issues with this pest that need further investigation: 1. Is the honeydew and resulting mould effectively removed by post-harvest water blasting?

2. Is the occurrence of mould significantly affecting export fruit quality?

3. Do very high populations impact tree health or productivity through excessive egg laying into new shoot growth?

4. Could this pest be responsible for any disease transmission by vectoring avocado plant pathogens?

A request has been made to a number of post-harvest operators to provide Quality Control pack-out information from the current season to understand if any rejections are due to excessive external mould, staining or honey dew residues. This information will be collated and communicated back to industry so that measures can be taken for next season.

Passionvine hoppers are a difficult pest to control because they are so mobile and often invade orchards from surrounding bush or scrub areas. Eggs are found for at least seven months of the year from March to October, with nymphs present from October to January. There has been little research looking at biocontrol of the passionvine hopper, so growers will have most success in reducing the populations that appear each summer by focusing on maintaining ‘border control’ during the winter and spring/early summer months before adults appear.

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Outside the orchard

Winter: The winter months are a good time to attempt to reduce populations in the orchard surrounds by targeting the removal of overwintering eggs through chemical controls or by removal of alternative host species (or both). This can be achieved by ensuring orchards remain mown, spraying shelters and boundaries and removing alternative host plants like mahoe (whitey wood) and weed hosts such as bracken and blackberry from the orchard border and surrounding gullies.

On the Orchard

There has recently been work done in kiwifruit with Talstar + Engulf on dormant canes/wood to penetrate eggs rafts and control eggs (label claim now exists). This could not be used on avocado trees but could be considered for use on gullies and surrounding host plants during winter.

Spring and early summer: Nymphs are present from October to January and are the easiest lifecycle stage to control as sprays are generally most effective at the nymph stage. However, adults may still appear in the orchard if populations remain significant in surrounding gullies or bush areas. Chemical control options discussed below are also relevant for controlling nymphs outside the orchard and in shelters, however care must be taken not to contact flowering plants as many of those mentioned are toxic or highly toxic to bees.

Inside the orchard

Summer/early autumn: Adults are most abundant in February and March. If populations are severe, or removal of alternative hosts is not practical, growers may choose to apply a targeted spray or select a product that is known to also have activity for the passionvine hopper. There are no avocado sprays registered for this pest but a number of existing products will have some activity if well timed.

Passion vine hopper often concentrate in high numbers in certain areas or corners of the orchard. Determining the distribution of passion vine hopper within the orchard through monitoring may allow for isolated areas to be treated, as opposed to spraying the entire orchard.

Calypso (Thiacloprid) is registered in avocados for use against thrips and through research has been found to have activity on passionvine hopper, although this use is offlabel. Attack (Permethrin, Pirimiphos methyl) or Lorsban

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(Chlorpyrifos) would have effects and may also have a stronger contact action on adults found at this time of year.

However cautious use of these products is advised, with many markets requiring residue testing after the use of Attack.

Pyrethrum products are also known to have good activity against passionvine hopper adults. Pyganic for organics, or Zeta Py (PBO-free) or Key Pyrethrum (contains PBO) for conventional. Normal practice for pyrethrum of spraying in the evening or early morning is best when UV exposure is low and the pests are at their least mobile due to temperature.

Use of the above products on avocados specifically against passionvine hopper would be off-label use. For any offlabel product use, you must apply for written dispensation from NZ Avocado. This is an EMS requirement and allows the efficacy of the product, MRL implications and any withholding periods to be considered.

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WorkSafe assessment 'not too daunting'

By Elaine Fisher, Journalist, SunMedia

elaine@thesun.co.nz

On the Orchard

The idea of a Worksafe Assessment can immediately put a grower on the defensive but the reality of this process is that it is designed to help growers and improve health and safety for everyone.

The gate opens remotely and the vehicle drives onto

the avocado orchard where John Cotterell is waiting to welcome its occupants. They are visitors some growers may not be so keen to see but Vance Walker and David Wilkinson are there at John’s invitation to carry out a WorkSafe assessment.

John and Cindy (who is working elsewhere this day) are confident the conditions on the orchard they own and operate are up to safety standards, but appreciate the opportunity to have the input of WorkSafe Assessment Manager David and Inspector Vance.

The assessment is part of a series of visits local assessment inspectors are carrying out on farms and orchards in the Bay of Plenty region in an effort to reduce accidents and deaths.

Leaflets advising inspectors will be in an area are delivered to most letterboxes.

“Rather than turn up unannounced, we would like to book a convenient time to visit,” says David.

“We don’t aim to catch people out, but want to work with growers and farmers to improve health and safety for everyone.

“We get to see first-hand the injuries and fatalities which

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happen on farms and orchards and for us it’s not about statistics but about real people, and the impacts on their families, work colleagues and friends.”

Hazard map

The inspection on the Cotterell orchard begins in the tea room, where an aerial map of the orchard, with potential hazardous areas clearly marked, is readily available. There’s a first aid kit and pinned to the wall, a flow chart of actions to be taken in the case of an accident.

Next door in the implement shed, Vance asks about the maintenance of machinery, who operates it and their experience to do so.

“It’s good to see the machinery has the correct guards and it all looks well maintained,” says Vance.

In a previous life, the implement shed had been a piggery and the boar pen with its strong galvanised steel bars makes an ideal and secure chemical store. And it has the correct hazard sign attached to the wall.

“Having a clearly identified chemical store is also important in case of a fire, as fire fighters need to know what kind of substances are in there and how to fight any fire involving

them, as some chemicals can explode when doused with water,” says David.

“What’s in the shed next door?” Vance asks.

“That’s used for personal storage and my boat,” says John.

“It is wise to keep personal and work equipment and machinery separate, so that there’s no confusion about what can be used in a work situation,” says Vance.

Employing staff

Note book records

David and Vance are happy with the orchard’s documentation but suggest Chemical Safety Data Sheets be kept somewhere which is always accessible to workers, rather than in the house.

John and Cindy keep a notebook of who comes onto the orchard – no-one can enter without permission, because of the electronic gate. After giving instructions about what tasks are to be performed and potential hazards discussed, they ask workers to sign and date the page.

“That’s a good idea.You shouldn’t burden yourself with paper work but if there is an incident, having a note about what you told someone can save a lot of hassle if the other person claims they weren’t told,” says David.

“It’s on the list for replacement,” says John. Vance suggests it be replaced by August of this year.

While the visit to John and Cindy’s orchard was by invitation, WorkSafe inspectors do, under S31 of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992, have the power to enter workplaces, including farms and orchards.

Back at the house, John produces the orchard’s health and safety documents and discusses the induction process for anyone coming to work on the orchard.

“Cindy usually does the induction, as I’m often not here. We use contractors we have worked with for many years and have confidence in. They have experienced staff, particularly in Hydralada operation.

“We have removed trees from wet and steeper parts of the orchard for safety and production reasons, and we don’t allow any staff to wear hoodies while working in the orchard as they obscure their peripheral vision, which is especially dangerous when operation Hydraladas,” says John.

On the Orchard

Currently John and Cindy don’t employ permanent staff, carrying out the majority of orchard work themselves and bringing in contractors for picking. But that may change in future. David and Vance say when that happens, it will be important to make it clear what machinery and equipment can be used by staff and ensure they are able to operate all machinery correctly.

• Pleased with what they have seen so far, Vance and David are however • not so happy about the small fuel • tank on a tri-pod stand with access to the top via steps on one leg.

• Tri-pod stands are no longer permitted for new fuel tanks, which • must now have a minimum of four • legs, a sound and secure ladder with all rungs present and no rust.

•

Vance says from an economic point of view, poor health and safety is a business liability, while good health and safety is a business asset and he’s pleased with what he’s seen at John and Cindy’s orchard.

The WorkSafe assessment of the Cotterell orchard took about an hour and a half and is a free service John believes growers should take advantage of.

“It wasn’t too daunting and it’s not a bad thing to have someone take a fresh look at what you are doing and point out anything which may need addressing – like that fuel tank.”

They may, at a reasonable time, enter a place of work for the purpose of performing any function as an inspector, and ‘conduct examinations, tests, inquiries and inspections’.

Section 168 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, which comes into force on 4 April 2016, has similar wording. An inspector cannot enter anyone’s home without a warrant or the person’s consent.

To find out more, and for tools and templates to help manage risk, go to www.saferfarms.org.nz

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New Zealand Market Promotions

By Midge Munro, Communications Manager, NZ Avocado

midge.munro@nzavocado.co.nz

Demand for avocados has been a hot topic in the media of late – on both sides of the ditch.

NZ Avocado’s messages about the versatility, taste and nutritional benefits of avocados are making an impact on consumers and are being shared and supported by some very influential New Zealanders.

Reports Markets

Olympian send out

Forty qualified New Zealand Olympians received an avocado smoothie kit from us in November with the purpose of showing them our support and promoting avocado as a super food to help fuel them on their journey to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Reports

Included in each kit was a recipe card with two delicious avocado power smoothie recipes, as well as a few key ingredients needed to make these. We also included a letter congratulating each Olympian on qualifying and provided some information on the many health benefits of avocados.

Social media lit up once the Olympians received the kits, with the majority of them posting about how much they love avocados and how avocados would definitely be helping fuel them to the 2016 Rio Olympics. These messages were shared with a potential audience of 110,000.

Radio and cafe send out

In December, we sent out avocado smoothie kits to popular radio stations (The Edge, The Hits and More FM, to name a few), targeting their most popular shows.

The kits included avocados, an Amazing Anytime branded

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smoothie bottle, seven different avocado smoothie recipes on individual magnets (one for each day), as well as a media release boasting the many benefits of adding avocado to smoothies.

We also sent these kits to 40 popular cafes located in Auckland, Tauranga and Mount Maunganui with the purpose being to encourage them to incorporate avocados into their smoothie menu by providing them with different recipe ideas they can use.

We will continue to follow up with these cafes and see how we can work together to promote avocados.

Valentine’s Day media release

Nadia Lim created a beautiful avocado chocolate ganache cake recipe just in time for Valentine’s Day. The recipe was released to media along with information on Kiwi’s everincreasing ‘love affair’ with avocados, giving the stat that there are 90,000 more households in New Zealand that purchased avocados in the 2014-15 season than previously.

5 + A Day Challenge #GETITIN

February was 5 + A Day’s annual challenge to encourage New Zealanders to get more fruit and vegetables (including

avocados) into their diets. NZ Avocado supported this campaign on social media by incorporating the challenge’s branding in our Facebook page header and also by providing avocados to popular children’s TV programme, Sticky TV. 5 + A Day organised for Sticky TV to get involved with their February challenge with avocados featuring twice. The three presenters snacked on guacamole in one episode airing the week of 22 February and created the guacamole in the other episode airing the week of 14 March.

MARKETING THE BEST

AVOCADOS IN NEW ZEALAND AND AROUND THE WORLD

In store sampling

Our avocado supermarket sampling campaign has continued in Countdown, New World and Pak’n’ Save stores nationwide, and will total more than 150 individual sessions when completed.

Television advertising

Markets

New Zealand Avocados’ Amazing Anytime television commercials starring Nadia Lim and showcasing avocado breakfast, dinner and dessert recipes aired during the Christmas break, and included high profile placement during Masterchef Australia. The final burst of screening for summer 2015-16 ended late January.

BEN LAY Export Marketing P +64 9 573 8583 M +64 21 477 108 E blay@freshmax.co.nz

KYM FRASER Domestic Manager P +64 9 917 1485 M +64 21 629 816 E kfraser@freshmax.co.nz

RODGER BAYLY NZGAP & Compliance P +64 7 985 6802 M +64 21 622 577 E rbayly@freshmax.co.nz

DAVE ALDERTON Technical Services M +64 21 505 814 E dalderton@freshmax.co.nz

Ever popular Dr Libby has mentioned avocado in seven different columns this season.

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Market focus: China will be a “gamechanger” for avocado industry

Reports Markets

New Zealand will never be able to supply the whole of China with avocados. Instead its exporters need to find one million consumers who want to buy the best avocados in the world from the safest source, says Jen Scoular, CEO, New Zealand Avocado.

Avocados in a Chinese supermarket.

“New Zealand avocados can only be a niche, high value product in China and as an industry we have to find the one million people to target. As a market, China offers significant challenges and awesome opportunities.”

Currently New Zealand can’t export avocados to China because it does not have an import health standard agreement with the Chinese government and while officials are working on opening up access, there’s no indication yet on when it may be granted.

As part of being prepared for that market, last year Jen visited China on three seperate occasions; once with AIC chairman Ashby Whitehead and AIC vice-chairman Tony Ponder and another two occasions with Tony Ponder.

Tony agrees with Jen that China offers exciting potential for the New Zealand avocado industry in terms of volumes and returns, but it’s not a market to venture into lightly.

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“China has the potential to become a premium avocado market, but each exporter will have to make its own assessment of how it wants to engage with the market.

“My personal view is that you can’t treat China as one market. It may be that exporters work with just one client, or even in just one city.

Two delegations

“Once access is approved it will enable our industry to develop outside our traditional Australian market base but China will always be challenging.”

In March this year NZ Avocado, together with MPI and other fruit industries, will host two delegations from China.

Jen says one delegation of 15 has come about as a result of contacts made through a stand NZ Avocado had at the iFresh show in Shanghai six months ago. That’s when interest was

expressed in making the visit to better understand New Zealand horticulture, including the avocado, pipfruit and kiwifruit industries.

Internet and social media channels are hugely important to marketing in modern China.

“The number people in China using social media is huge. On “Singles’ Day” (November 11) alone US$65billion worth of sales where made in just one day.”

While in China, Jen visited a facility packing fruit orders for customers.

“They were packing two avocados in a box for next day delivery to customers who ordered them the day before.

We also saw Zespri kiwifruit being packed in a similar way.

What our industry needs to understand is the supply chain required to deliver ready-to-eat avocados to consumers the next day in China.

“It may be in China the fact that avocado is the perfect first food for babies, or that it is good for your skin or eyes will be the most appealing health message.”

“Understanding the media landscape - both traditional and modern social channels, will be critical for connecting with consumers and sharing key messages of health, use and origin.” says Midge Munro, NZ Avocado’s Communications Manager.

Thanks Mexico

Tony says the New Zealand industry has Mexico to thank for the hard work it has done to build consumer awareness of avocados.

astounded by the rapid growth in infrastructure and sophistication.

Markets

“We also need to look at which of the 20 health attributes of avocados will most strongly appeal to Chinese consumers, because they may be different from that which is important to Korean or Japanese consumers.

Fruit wrapped as gifts in a supermarket.

New Zealand’s reputation in China for safe, healthy food will benefit its avocado industry; so too will taking time to understand what Chinese consumers want.

According to customs statistics, avocado imports in China, in particular from Mexico, grew by 376 per cent since access was granted in 2005. Consumption is growing as China’s middle class begins to recognise the health benefits of avocados.

A report in China Daily says China imported $8.35 million dollars’ worth of Mexican avocados in 2014, 351 per cent more than in the previous year. Chile and Peru also have access to China for avocados.

Zespri experience

“That’s been done with small fruit and a competitive price.

However in New Zealand our costs are too high and we must look after growers’ orchard gate returns.”

The New Zealand avocado industry can also learn from the experiences of kiwifruit exporter Zespri, which has encountered customs issues in China, but also enjoyed significant success there.

Building relationships in China is crucial, says Tony, who has been visiting the country for 20 years and is continually

It’s General Manager - Government and External Relations David Courtney says quality and safety are extremely

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Reports Markets

Tony Ponder and AshbyWhitehead talk to a Produce Manager at a Chinese supermarket.

important for the Zespri brand in its product offering to Chinese consumers.

“Demand for safe, premium, healthy food for Chinese families is strong and China is one of Zespri’s fastest growing markets. Sales increased by over 50 per cent last season to hit a record 18 million trays.

“We expect China to overtake Japan as our number one country market by volume in the next year or so.”

China, he says, is a complex and dynamic market, as well as being exciting for New Zealand exporters and marketers.

“In this context it is important to invest in developing a deep understanding of the business environment, including through developing relationships and getting good advice,

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and to put in place robust business structures and processes.”

Wherever Zespri operates, it is important to understand the local operating environment, including the compliance framework and import requirements.

“Over the last few years Zespri has strengthened its compliance framework for all its operations, including China. This includes improving global policies and due diligence processes, and supporting compliance training for all staff across the company.

Ashby Whitehead says gaining access to China is his biggest focus in his role as NZ Avocado’s Chairman. “It’s a huge challenge but also a huge opportunity.”

Gifting in China Gifting is an important element in Chinese culture and well-presented New Zealand avocados may be an ideal fit for those seeking to present gifts which make a statement.

Plant & Food Research has carried out surveys in China which provide a fascinating insight into the gifting culture.

They show that more than 50 per cent of gifts given in China are food. Affluent, internet-savvy consumers are happy to spend well over NZ$300 to send the right message through the gift they give. Imported foods have huge appeal and consumers definitely want more food gifts from New Zealand.

Chinese consumers rated imported food highly for taste, quality, packaging, design, expensiveness and scarcity.

They quoted style, safety, novelty and ‘classy’ as key attributes which underscored their perceptions that a gift

The Chinese cultural emphasis on reciprocity – the fair exchange of benefit and value in a relationship – means gifting is a way to signal a desire for assistance in future. Focus group members told researchers “Money cannot buy everything” and spoke of the role of gifting in establishing long-term beneficial relationships with teachers, doctors, clients and employers. The social pact formed by gifting means a receiver may decline a gift if they do not feel able to meet any perceived expectation, or if they do not want or value what the relationship offers.

Price and quality matter when gifting in China because they combine to represent the “value” the giver places on the relationship and its outcomes. While allowances are made for the wealth of the giver, focus groups said that the value of a gift needs to be proportionate to the respect, care or services offered and exchanged in the relationship.

Markets

Twenty-eight per cent of respondents report buying a NZ food gift in the previous 12 months. Consumers said they knew NZ for honey, dairy, blueberries, kiwifruit and lamb but the list of NZ foods they wanted to buy as gifts was much longer, including chocolate, meat, jams, spirits and muesli bars. When respondents were showed photographs of NZ foods, many packaged as gifts for local market, focus group members were often less than impressed by the quality of the packaging and presentation, which many thought lacked refinement and did not properly convey the value of the product, researchers report.

of imported food shows greater respect and sincerity than giving a local product. Seventy-eight percent of survey respondents agree that ‘fully imported food has more face value if chosen as a gift’.

If a gift falls short of these, offence may be taken by the receiver. Over 70 per cent of survey respondents said gift buying was increasing in frequency and value. Sixty per cent agreed that the higher the price, the more dignity and respect offered by a gift. Seventy-four per cent agreed a low price gift “will be quite embarrassing”.

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‘Amazing yet complex’ trees focus

By Alison Brown, Communications, AVOCO

enquiries@avoco.co.nz

A love for working outdoors and a determined spirit is rewarding avocado grower Sue Withy at her picturesque orchard just north of Tauranga.

She’s notched up another successful season and is confident

a bumper crop is on the way for the next one.

“I flower-pruned late last year because there were so many flowers and I thought the trees were starting to look a bit stressed. I’m interested to observe the impact this will have on fruit set and flush. It’s good to try new methods.”

Sue, a former teacher and dairy farmer, manages the Aongatete orchard on her own after her husband Phil passed away more than two-and-a-half years ago. Keeping the orchard going has motivated Sue and been a helpful distraction.

“People have suggested that I sell the orchard but it has given me a focus. I’ve worked outside most of my life. I just carry on doing it.”

Sue Withy.

Bare land

Royacker, the picking happens ‘very quickly’.

Sue and Phil bought the property with Sue’s late sister and her husband after first selling their dairy farm at Awakaponga, near Whakatane in 2000.

Always learning

Sue calls on canopy management specialist Brendon Cheshire when she needs advice on pruning. Together, their strategy is to keep her avocado trees no taller than 8m high, retain space between the trees and keep them open so enough light penetrates the canopy to allow fruit to grow around the lower limbs. This also allows better spray coverage.

Pests are regularly monitored and sprayed accordingly, although Sue admits she’s reluctant to do it. “It’s necessary to combat things such as the six-spotted mite and leafroller which have been a problem in the past. I use a contractor these days but I do all the weed spraying and mowing myself.”

Pruned hard

With so many ‘amazing yet complex’ trees to look after, she feels she’s never stopped learning. .

“All our trees get pruned reasonably hard every year,” says Sue. She picks twice – once in early October and again in December. About 12 picking platforms were used last October and under the leadership of contractor Mike

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They bought 16ha of bare land and sought help from consultants David Lushington and Colin Partridge to get them started. The two couples planted their shelter trees first before planting 1500 Hass avocado trees in 15 blocks over two years. After the trees became more established, they took out every second tree to let more light into the orchard and give the remaining trees more room to grow.

Sue now packs with Apata and has supplied Team Avocado (one half of export supply group AVOCO) from the get-go.

Her orchard benefits from free-draining soil and a mostly flat contour. However, Sue is aware of a couple of blocks that dip low enough to get hit hard by frosts, which has happened once or twice. However, the orchard is fairly well protected with two irrigators next to each tree doubling as frost protection, automatically going on when the temperature falls to 2 degrees C.

“When we started out, we knew nothing and even after all this time, I still have a lot to learn. The Avocado Industry Council and other growers continue to do research to discover better ways of growing avocados and that’s exciting for the future.”

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New cultivars update

By Danni van der Heijden, R&D Associate, NZ Avocado danielle.vanderheijden@nzavocado.co.nz

New Zealand Avocado’s R&D team is conducting three new cultivar trials with the objective to evaluate their performance and suitability for commercial use in New Zealand conditions.

Read about the current findings of this PGP funded research project below.

Figure 1 left - Size difference in 2015 between average Maluma (Left) and Hass (Right) trees on Dusa rootstock at the Mangawhai Trial Orchard, New Zealand.

New cultivars developed overseas by various plant breeding

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institutions have shown superior traits that could benefit the New Zealand industry. Prior to 2009, the Avocado Industry Council (AIC) imported a number of these new avocado rootstocks and scions for assessment under New Zealand conditions. The cultivars imported were selected because they had shown one or more advantageous characteristics in overseas trials indicating the potential to perform better than the New Zealand commercial standard Hass on Zutano. In order to determine whether these new cultivars would add value to the New Zealand avocado industry, three trials and two plantings in commercial New Zealand orchards were established from 2009-2013. The following is an update on two of the trial orchards, one in Mangawhai and the other in Whangarei.

Update on Mangawhai New Cultivar Trial

Mangawhai Trial Information In October 2009, the Mangawhai new cultivar trial was planted in a commercial orchard on a block with heavy soil, prone to waterlogging. It was a replant situation where 30-year-old trees with advanced decline symptoms had been pulled out. Phosphonate was not applied initially, however with the declining tree health, a foliar spray programme was put in place in Autumn 2012.

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35 groups of Hass trees were planted, each containing; •O ne Hass on Dusa (except for one block where an error was made and two Duke 7 were planted) • One Hass on Bounty • One Hass on Duke 7 • Two Hass on Zutano 28 groups of Maluma trees were planted, each containing; • One Maluma on Dusa • One Maluma on Duke 7 • Two Maluma on Zutano Maluma Trials overseas have reported Maluma to have a less vigorous growth habit, larger fruit compared to Hass, and high yields.

The Maluma trees planted at Mangawhai have a smaller average trunk diameter than the Hass trees and are visibly smaller and more compact, consistent with the lower vigour reported overseas (Figure 1) (Ernst 2011; Wolstenholme & Sheard 2012).

The Maluma fruit were larger (with some reaching up to 500g), however the yields per tree have been lower than Hass (Figures 2 & 3). During the 2014 and 2015 harvests, individual fruit weights of 20 fruit per tree and the total yield for each tree was recorded. Although the Maluma fruit had an average size of 18 count compared to 23 count for

Comparisons of fruit size

Figure 2 Comparison of Maluma and Hass yield on Dusa rootstock at the Mangawhai trial orchard, New Zealand.

Figure 4 Comparison of Hass yields on rootstocks at the Mangawhai trial orchard, New Zealand.

Figure 3 Comparison of Maluma and Hass fruit size on Dusa rootstock at the Mangawhai trial orchard, New Zealand.

Figure 5 Comparison of Hass fruit size on Bounty and Dusa rootstocks at the Mangawhai trial orchard, New Zealand.

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Hass, in 2015 the average yields of Maluma trees were less than a third of the yields of Hass trees on the same rootstock. Similar trends were seen in 2014 (Figure 3).

Although the greater average fruit size is consistent with that reported overseas, high yields are yet to be seen from Maluma in New Zealand conditions (Ernst 2007).

Over 60% of the Maluma trees planted in the replant situation in Mangawhai have died, including 50% of the Maluma on Dusa trees (compared to a 6% mortality of Hass on Dusa).

Rootstocks We have observed differences in yield, fruit size and tree health based on the rootstock of trial trees.

Figure 6 Comparison of Maluma fruit size on Dusa rootstock at the Mangawhai trial orchard, New Zealand

In 2014 the average Hass yields from trees on Bounty and

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the 288 trees were planted in very tough conditions with heavy soil and historically high tree decline rates. Many did not survive. Phosphonate was not applied initially, however with the declining tree health a foliar spray programme was put in place and the trees were sprayed every six weeks from January 2012 until April 2014. In 2013, the trial was consolidated into one of the original three blocks - Block 3, which had the highest survival rate. Surviving plants of important combinations in Block 1 and Block 2 were transplanted into regions of Block 3 where trees had died and in the spaces between surviving trees.

Figure 7.Trees of each variety which have died in October 2015 at theWhangarei trial orchard, New Zealand.

Dusa rootstocks were more than double those from trees on Duke 7 and Zutano rootstocks (Figure 4). In 2015 yields from Dusa, Duke 7 and Zutano rootstock trees were similar, and trees on Bounty rootstock had the greatest average yield. The 2015 flower assessments show Bounty and Dusa to potentially have a greater yield in 2016 than Duke 7 and Zutano.

The information gathered so far from this trial suggests that Bounty and Dusa may be able to support higher crop loads than Duke 7 and Zutano rootstocks in this orchard under replant conditions.

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In the Mangawhai harvests of 2014 and 2015, Hass on both Dusa and Bounty rootstocks had a larger average fruit size than on Duke 7 and Zutano rootstocks (Figure 5). Maluma on Dusa also had a larger average fruit size than on Duke 7 and Zutano (Figure 6).

Over 70% of the Hass on Zutano trial trees have died, compared to 19% of those with Duke 7 rootstock and only 5.8% and 5.9% of those with Dusa and Bounty, respectively.

The surviving Bounty and Dusa trees also appear healthier with scores of 1.4 and 1.5 compared to 2.3 for Duke 7 and 2.5 for Zutano (ranked using the international scale of 0-10 where 0 = excellent health and 10 = dead).

Update on Whangarei New Cultivar Trial

Whangarei Trial Information A large new cultivar trial was set up in a Whangarei commercial orchard replant situation in 2011, however

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Data in this update pertains only to the 96 trees originally planted in Block 3, as trees transplanted from Block 1 and 2 are likely to have been affected by the transplantation process. The trial consists of four trees of each scionrootstock combination; • Scions • Rootstocks:

o Carmen

o AIC 1

o Hass

o AIC 3

o Maluma

o Bounty

o Duke 7 o Dusa o Latas o Velvick o Zutano

Results In this trial, differences in tree health, yield and fruit size have been observed between the various scion-rootstock combinations.

Due to the challenging situation the trees were planted into, 35 of the 96 trees had died by October 2015 (Figure 7). The survival rate of Carmen was the greatest of the three scions, followed by Hass and then Maluma. Rootstocks Bounty and Dusa had the highest survival rates across the three scions, however Latas and Zutano had a similar survival rate if only Hass and Carmen scions were considered. Velvick, a rootstock which is reported to have good performance in Australia (Giblin et al, 2005), had the poorest survival rate.

The trees in the Whangarei trial were harvested in May (autumn-set fruit) and October (spring-set fruit) 2015.

In the four-year-old Carmen and Hass trees, Bounty produced the greatest yields (Figure 8). Hass with Latas and AIC 1 rootstocks produced a similar yield to those with Bounty rootstock. The Carmen trees produced on average

approximately 50% autumn-set fruit and 50% springset fruit, and in October 2015 some Carmen trees were seen to be holding autumn-set fruit, spring-set fruit, flowers and significant flush at the same time.

Off-season flowering periods are a trait reported for Carmen internationally (Illsley-Granich et al, 2011).

Summary At this stage Bounty and Dusa are showing superior health and yields so are looking most promising in very challenging environments. As we collect more data we will be more confident about the comparisons of performance of these, and other rootstock varieties.

Although Maluma seems to display the lower vigour and larger fruit size reported overseas, so far it has had low yields and comparatively poor health in New Zealand trials. Carmen trees have exhibited the offseason flowering reported for the variety, however more data is needed to determine its performance in New Zealand as a whole.

It should be noted that results in these trials, under challenging conditions, may be very different from results that may be recorded in virgin soil. For this reason, going forward, we will look at trials in both regular and challenging conditions, to better enable evaluation in both of those situations.

Figure 8 Carmen and Hass yields by rootstock harvested in 2015 at theWhangarei trial orchard, New Zealand.

More information about new cultivar trials can be found on our industry website under 'Orchard Mngt' > 'New Cultivars'.

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References Ernst, A. (2007). Maluma Hass: A New Released Cultivar in Comparison with Hass. ProceedingsVIWorld Avocado Congress.

Ernst, Z. R., & Ernst, A. A. (2011). High density cultivation: a case study of central leader pruning with Maluma. Proceedings SeventhWorld Avocado Congress.

Giblin, F., Pegg, K.,Willingham, S., Anderson, J., Coates, L., Cooke,T., Dean, J. & Smith, L. (2005, September). Phytophthora revisited. In New Zealand and Australia Avocado Growers Conference.

Illsley-Granich, C., Brokaw, R. & Ochoa-Ascencio, S. (2011). Hass Carmen, a precocious flowering avocado tree. Proceedings SeventhWorld Avocado Congress.

Wolstenholme, B. N., & Sheard, A. (2012). AVOCADO TREEVIGOUR AND SIZE DICTATE ORCHARD PLANTING DENSITY: A SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE.South African Avocado Growers Association Avoinfo Newsletter. 185, 8-12.

Figure 9 Carmen on Bounty tree with autumn-set fruit, spring-set fruit, flowers and flush in theWhangarei trial orchard, New Zealand.

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R&D Update

By Phillip West, R&D Officer, NZ Avocado phillip.west@nzavocado.co.nz and Danni van der Heijden, R&D Associate, NZ Avocado danielle.vanderheijden@nzavocado.co.nz

It has been an exciting start to 2016 with a new R&D Manager joining the team and a continuing focus to deliver research relevant to growers.

Peter Pieterson talking to the discussion group at John Cotterell's orchard.

Bay of Plenty field days were a great chance to mix with Reports

growers in November last year. We shared information about the performance of new cultivars (now available on our website) as well as work relating to irrigation and the potential impacts of soil moisture deficiency. It was great to hear growers experience of previous El Niño events, how dry things got and the lengths some went to, to keep their trees going. My favourite was a grower stealing water from their children’s paddling pool to water young trees. Any major effects of El Niño likely won’t be seen until flowering and harvest next year with trees likely to stop growing rather than show any immediate signs of stress. Soil moisture deficits rose quickly through October in most areas, but so far there has been sufficient rain to keep soil moisture deficits at similar levels to last year at the weather stations we looked at in the different growing regions.

We were also fortunate enough to be invited to a grower discussion group where we presented some highlights and

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photos from the recent World Avocado Congress. Also in attendance was Peter Pieterson, an agronomist from ZZ2 in South Africa. Peter was also at the World Avocado Congress and all in attendance appeared to enjoy the discussion around pruning, the use of plant growth regulators and how we differ in practice between our two countries.

An issue that several growers have again reported this year is significant cuke set in their orchards. This seems to be sporadic but we are discussing possible causes with a number of industry professionals in a hope to identify any commonalities that could be avoided in future. If you have had significant cuke set in your orchard we would be interested to hear from you – see a recent edition of AvoConnect to fill out a short survey on this.

Temperature is one of the possible factors contributing to cuke set, as well as fruit set in general. Building on the temperature information collected from a number of Bay

of Plenty orchards, we will be setting up two temperature sensor networks in the Whangarei region. We’ll monitor differences in temperature across and between each orchard and look to see what effect (if any) differences might be having on fruit set. The Whangarei area experienced particularly poor fruit set in both the 2013-14 and 201415 seasons. Following each event, visits were made to the region to meet with growers and hear what they thought might be contributing to the poor fruit set. Both times the key factor growers have mentioned is temperature. We hope the newly installed temperature sensors will help understand temperature variations in the Whangarei region better.

Information gathered from Bay of Plenty orchards in the Orchard Analysis project is being analysed to determine how much of the variability in performance can be attributed to differences in location and topography, versus other factors.

Orchard management practices will be incorporated into future analysis to build the picture around which factors are the most important for good orchard performance.

The final pruning treatment in this years’ Pruning to Balance trial was completed in January. This trial will look at the effect of removing, at different stages of fruit development, a proportion of fruit from overloaded trees in an “on” year. The objective is to determine whether fruit pruning at different stages of fruit development has a positive impact on irregular bearing, while measuring the economic impacts associated with the pruning.

Carbohydrate samples were also collected from the trial trees in November. While tree carbohydrate levels are low at this time of year following flowering, the results will act as a base line that will allow us to compare the carbohydrate accumulation of trees pruned at different times and how this translates into return flowering and fruit set.

DUS testing (Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability) has been completed for the year for the new fruiting cultivars of Maluma and Carmen. This testing is an essential part of establishing the plant variety rights here in New Zealand.

This involved comprehensive assessments of over 68 different characteristics across 14 plant parts. The testing was completed in a manner which met the standards set by the Plant Variety Rights office, and the variety descriptions were accepted by the testing officer. The Plant Variety Rights for both varieties have been granted and the varieties will be protected for 23 years.

Two students from the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic visited the office to demonstrate the data logger they had developed.

The logger is capable of storing a range of environmental information such as rainfall, soil moisture, temperature etc and would cost a fraction of what is currently on the market.

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic approached NZ Avocado for project ideas for their students and these students did a great job of putting their logger idea together. It’s now up to them to decide whether they want to develop the project further and become technology moguls.

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Students from BOP Polytech who have put together a data logger that can be used to record a range of environmental factors from different equipment.

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Export promotions

By Midge Munro, Communications Manager, NZ Avocado midge.munro@nzavocado.co.nz

With the incredible export promotional activity taking place in countries such as Australia, South Korea and Thailand, consumer demand is constantly increasing. This is as a result of consumers being exposed to new and exciting ways they can utilise premium New Zealand avocados. We take a closer look at the activities driving this demand.

TV commercials showing in Australia.

Australia

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Avocado prices in Australia hit record highs in early 2016, with trays from a wholesaler costing up to AU$75. A mixture of high demand and shortening supply at the end of the New Zealand and Western Australian seasons has meant some consumers are paying up to AU$7 per fruit at retail.

Consumption in Australia has risen to 3.2kg per person per annum and the Australian industry is aiming to boost that to 5kg within the next decade through its extensive marketing programme.

New Zealand Avocado has contributed to the avocado promotion campaign in Australia for a number of years, carrying on activity during our export window. This season we invested in the continuation of the “Love that avocado feeling” television commercial for two one-week bursts at the end of October and the beginning of November – a period that had been forecast by New Zealand exporters as a time of potential pressure on the market.

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We purchased space across channels Nine and Ten in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and accessed programmes that our target audience watch such as The Block, Big Bang Theory, The Biggest Loser and Nine News.

The target audience for the campaign was female grocery buyers aged 25 to 49. We reached approximately 45% of this group at least once and, on average, they saw our television commercial between two and three times across the campaign period.

We also ran the commercial across online ‘ondemand’ catchup television and accessed both mobile and tablet users. This activity delivered 289,110 impressions across the two-week campaign (+6% on planned impressions). On average, 87% of our target audience that we reached, watched the video to 100% completion against a benchmark of 70%. Overall, the campaign delivered a 0.66% click through rate to the Australian avocado website and the highest level of clicks came from yahoo.com and tenplay.com.au.

The promotions we fund in Australia are part of a much larger campaign run by Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited (HIAL) and Avocados Australia Limited (AAL). A recent review coordinated by HIAL of the activities from the past three years revealed these key conclusions about the success of the campaign: • Marketing efforts in the last three years have been successful and have grown the target market of Avocado Lovers and Avocado Enthusiasts.

• Advertising and communications have successfully engaged with avocado buyers through a multimedia strategy including television advertising, social media, digital engagement and search optimisation activities.

• High advertising recognition and strong (and growing) consumer engagement has been observed.

• The market research indicates strong buyer engagement and behaviour change over the last three years – in particular consumers have changed their behaviour to buy more avocados more frequently.

South Korea

Through our link with Hong Shin Ae, avocados from New Zealand gained significant free coverage in the September 2015 issue of Korean Vogue magazine. The article included all five of Hong Shin Ae’s New Zealand avocado recipes.

On 17 October, NZ Avocado and Hong Shin Ae hosted a special event titled “New Zealand Avocado Festival” at Hong Shin Ae’s restaurant, Ssalgage.

Ssalgage is a high profile restaurant serving 100 portions per day of a set menu during lunch time. Hong Shin Ae developed a special avocado appetiser to serve with this meal for the avocado festival day – an avocado ginger salad.

Posters were displayed advertising the event, servers talked

to consumers about New Zealand avocados when bringing meals to them, and on all tables were fresh avocados and recipe booklets.

Five South Korean bloggers were invited to this event to get them to write about the experience and share the information given to them about avocados from New Zealand.

Bloggers are very influential in South Korea and they will often test a product and recount their experience of it to their many followers. Korean consumers place much trust in these bloggers, making this a perfect place to communicate the benefits and uses of avocados.

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This season, exporters undertook extensive in-store sampling campaigns promoting avocados from New Zealand in Korean hypermarkets and supermarkets. To support this, NZ Avocado engaged Korean celebrity chef, Hong Shin Ae to create Korean style recipes with New Zealand avocados.

These recipes were shared on our Korean website, Korean Facebook page and through Hong Shin Ae’s own social media channels. They have also been incorporated into exporter handouts at in-store promotion events.

Staff from Latitude 45 promoting New Zealand avocados at Hong Shin Ae's restaurant Ssalgage in South Korea.

Along with the set lunch, we had an avocado tasting and information stand outside the restaurant to occupy those waiting and entice walkers by.

Along with Hong Shin Ae being present and interacting with the bloggers and consumers, we also had the New Zealand Ambassador to the Republic of Korea, Clare Fearnley in attendance. Consumers enjoyed the event and meeting with a celebrity chef and foreigners.

Exposure from bloggers that attended the event reached a Korean audience of 45,000. A further 17,000 were reached through Hong Shin Ae’s Facebook and website channels.

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core purchasers of avocado currently. This group purchases avocados weekly from a retail store and buys two at a time.

Consumers like the buttery and creamy texture of the avocado. The main use is in salads through which they enjoy the creamy taste of avocado. Other popular uses are plain – from the shell and in beverages/shakes. As well as buying avocados for preparation in the home, this group also consumes avocado when they are out and again salad and beverages are popular. Muffins, pastries and baked preparations including avocado become more important in out of home dining.

The top three ranked health benefits of avocado were the vitamins and antioxidants in avocados can improve your skin from inside out, avocados are naturally cholesterolfree making them a heart-healthy addition to your diet, and fibre in avocados keeps your digestive system healthy.

Diabetes and cholesterol are their main health concerns.

Overall they mainly consume avocados for the health of their heart.

These consumers have a good understanding of the stages of ripeness.

Avocado tastings at a supermarket in Thailand as part of Freshmax's promotional activity.

Thailand research

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The Thailand market has increased significantly in volumes during the past three seasons (3,000 trays in 2012-13 to a planned 92,000 in the 2015-16 season), making it a significant market to develop.

To capture the opportunity here, NZ Avocado conducted some initial consumer and market research to establish who the target consumer should be for New Zealand avocados, understand Thai consumer preferences and awareness of avocados, develop further insights about leading retailers and the avocado importers in Thailand, and identify and understand the best promotional channels through which to educate consumers about avocados.

This research was carried out using a mix of desk research, store audits, consumer surveys and trade interviews.

The research showed that female Thai citizens aged 30 with a household income of THB40,000 and over are the

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This group are influenced equally by print and online media about nutrition and cooking, also availability and seasonality, and price promotions. Advice from store personnel and celebrity endorsements were least influential on them when purchasing fruits and vegetables.

Respondents had a very good opinion of New Zealand as a supplier of fruits and vegetables, agreeing that we produce premium produce that is high quality, safe, fresh and tasty, however they also agreed that New Zealand produce was expensive.

Currently over half of this group are either unsure if New Zealand supplies avocados or think it does not supply avocados. On average 30%-35% of respondents who were aware of New Zealand avocados agreed that they were tastier, more premium, of higher quality and healthier/ more nutritious than avocados from other countries.

This research has provided a great overview and starting point to inform our activity in this market. To read the full report, which includes details on the retail and promotions landscape, please sign into the industry website and go to Crop & Market > Market info > Thailand.

Avocentric - Ann-Marie and Kevin Evans

By Elaine Fisher, Journalist, SunMedia

elaine@thesun.co.nz

Twenty years ago, Ann-Marie and Kevin Evans left drystock farming in the north for a new life in the Bay of Plenty, and bought a 3.6 canopy hectare avocado orchard without a house in Capamagian Drive, not far from Waihi Beach.

Rochelle Kean and her dad Kevin Evans check for insects on the family’s orchard nearWaihi Beach.

“That was in 1995, post the 1992 crash and kiwifruit

Subsequently the couple bought another 2.8 canopy hectare avocado orchard in nearby Waiau Road.

The couple then fell in love with a lifestyle block and house on the edge of Tauranga Harbour in the Athenree village, not far from the orchards.

“We had always thought a location like this would be ideal in our retirement but suddenly had the chance to buy it well before then.”

The kiwifruit orchard was sold – with no regrets. AnnMarie landscaped the Athenree grounds, creating a beautiful garden which has hosted twilight concerts, garden rambles and weddings, and is enjoyed by friends, family, and especially grandchildren.

Kevin may not have liked growing kiwifruit, but has found

Discussion group

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orchards were the best buy in town, so we also bought a house with a kiwifruit orchard,” says Kevin, who admits he hated managing the orchard.

a real passion for avocado orcharding which two decades of involvement has failed to diminish.

He was among the foundation members of a long-running discussion group set up in 2003 which John Cotterell continues to convene.

Kevin has attended virtually every industry AGM in the past 15 years and by his own admission, reads just about anything about avocados he can get his hands on.

The Evans’ orchards have been part of a number of industry trials and Kevin also enjoys seeing the results and the discussions around what works and what doesn’t.

Half of the trees on the Capamagian orchard were planted in 1978 by industry pioneer Brian Capamagian and subsequent trees planted by the second owner in 1992.

“Our orchard blocks are about 3.5 kilometres apart as the crow flies and receive the same management – but

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while Waiau Road produces well, Capamagian Drive is a challenge.”

Orchard performance Chart

Production last season from Waiau Road was 26.7tonnes per hectare (three year average: 19.1tonnes/ha) and 13.6tonnes (three year average: 10.9 tonnes/ha) from Capamagian Drive.

Quite why there is a distinct difference in production isn’t clear, but Ann-Marie thinks location is a factor.

“Waiau Road orchard is warmer and less windy, while it always seems cooler at Capamagian Drive.” Kevin thinks some of the early trees at Capamagian Drive may not be true to type either.

A few years ago they may have been tempted to sell that orchard but now daughter Rochelle Kean is living at Athenree and involved in the orchard business, the focus is on succession planning and orchard rejuvenation with the gradual replacement of older trees with new clonal rootstock Hass.

Pest monitoring

Rochelle, husband John and their three children live in Athenree village and Rochelle has trained as an AvoGreen pest monitor; skills which will see her taking increased responsibility for that aspect of the family orchard management, along with other roles, giving Kevin the chance to ease back from the business – if he can.

Kevin says it used to be thought avocado trees were almost dormant in the winter, so fertiliser wasn’t applied then.

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“Work done by Andrew Mandemaker into photosynthesis production showed the trees don’t shut down and we should be feeding them over winter to build up starch and carbohydrate reserves for the high demands of spring flowering fruitset and flush,” says Kevin, who believes not feeding trees through winter may have helped lead to irregular or biennial bearing problems.

Annual soil tests are carried out on the Evans’ orchards in April/May and on the basis of what they show, up to10-12 tonnes of fertiliser is applied each year, which equates to around 20-30kg of fertiliser, (excluding lime), per tree, depending on the tree size and crop load.

Fertiliser application

Spring application of around 12kg per tree is applied by contract bulk spreading in August/September and the balance using industry proprietary mix bi-monthly from November to March, followed by a winter dressing of

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potassium nitrate in May/June. Boron is an important component of the fertiliser programme and is applied September and February.

Kevin is a committed fan of pruning.

“Someone once said that the avocado industry was the only fruit growing industry in New Zealand which didn’t prune on an annual basis. It is important to have a root to shoot balance in trees.”

Letting light into the canopy is also essential and the Evans’ trees are pruned in what Kevin describes as a ‘cascade’ configuration, where light can strike all branches and foliage.

“It’s a bit like an unopened umbrella and pruning this way actually increases your canopy hectares because you get fruit not just high up, but right throughout the tree.”

The test for Kevin that the pruning configuration is right isn’t just in the fruit, but also if there’s a healthy sward of grass in the rows between the trees – indicating light is getting all the way to ground level.

Long sward

On the subject of sward – don’t mow it too often is Kevin’s advice.

“We’ve sometimes been asked if ours are organic orchards because we let the sward grow long. While perhaps for some people having a neat tidy, well-mowed orchard is a source of pride, for me it is extra work and an extra cost.

“A longer sward also encourages flowering plants to grow, which provide food for bees. We don’t have a problem attracting bees to avocado flowers because they have nectar but bees also need pollen for protein and wild flowers provide that, helping keep bees in the orchard, and hives strong.”

Tree health, particularly in terms of phytophthora control, is a major focus.

“As an industry, I don’t think we are using enough injections to control phytophthora, even though growers are probably following the label directions. We apply up to 850 syringes a day when we are injecting and I believe you need to inject every limb.” That means, depending on tree size, between 23 to 30 injections for each of the orchards’ 412 trees.

AvoGreen issue

Kevin tells the tale of some misguided orchard workers who accidently filled syringes with Round-up instead of the phytophthora treatment.

“They applied the recommended number of syringes but only managed to kill half the tree, indicating that to treat all limbs, more syringes are required.”

AvoGreen pest monitoring is a successful model and brings benefits for export and for growers in that sprays are only applied as required.

“The new sprays are more target specific but it’s a real problem that, for safety reasons, pest monitors cannot use Hydraladas to check the tops of trees for insects. We were badly affected with a high fruit reject rate one season when ground testing showed we didn’t have a pest problem, but in fact insects were present in the upper canopy.”

Ground spraying is used on one orchard, but a helicopter on another where neighbours are sensitive to spraying.

The two orchards were part of a flower pruning trial.

“Flower pruning works – but I don’t do it,” says Kevin. He’d rather prune fruit than flowers.

“I don’t want to remove up to 30 per cent of what may be a light crop by pruning flowers.”

Ann-Marie and Kevin have seen significant swings in income in their 20 years of avocado growing; among the most dramatic was in 2011 when returns plummeted after what Kevin describes as “a blood-bath” of over-supply in the Australian market. The orchards earned $16.41 per tray in 2010. That dropped to $7.86 per tray in 2011 and it was $15.12 per tray in 2012.

New co-opetition

He’s impressed at how major industry players have now joined together in “co-opetition” to work together with the aim of not over-supplying Australia, and developing new markets in other countries.

“The industry now has an understanding, and shares information with Western Australian avocado growers, so New Zealand fruit doesn’t collapse the market for them either.”

Co-operation is bringing increased certainty for growers, who still face fluctuating incomes because of irregular bearing habits of their trees – but Kevin is heartened by research which may help overcome the extremes of crop loadings.

Reports

“There is no drift from helicopter spraying. Initially I was reluctant to use a helicopter because I thought it would be too expensive but because of how quickly the job is done, the reality is helicopter/ground spraying differential is under a $100 a hectare.”

Succession - Ann-Marie and Kevin Evans with daughter Rochelle Kean, and her children, three-month old Avril, Michael, 9, and Liam, 8.

Running a low-cost operation, with a high focus on tree health, is one way of surviving the highs and lows. Figures for 2013 show total orchard expenses per hectare (excluding picking but including maintenance, vehicles administration and standing charges) are $9884 for the two Evans orchards.

The venture into avocado orcharding has been rewarding for Kevin and Ann Marie and they are delighted Rochelle is becoming more actively involved. She’s pretty happy with the arrangement too.

“I love working in the orchard, and it’s relatively easy to combine spending time with my children with orcharding,” says Rochelle, who is also impressed and inspired by the number of young women actively involved in the avocado industry, as growers, consultants or as part of AIC.

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Picture perfect at Taste of Auckland A team from NZ Avocado interacted with more than 6000 attendees at the Taste of Auckland festival held at Western Springs, Auckland, from 5-8 November.

NZ Avocado's Glenys Parton and Jodi Senior, and student helper Sarah Delfos with our recipe demonstrator Makaia Carr.

Over the course of six sessions during the four days of Reports

the festival, attendees who visited NZ Avocado’s stand were treated to an ‘Instagram worthy’ setting where we performed cooking demos, handed out recipe cards and booklets, as well as various delicious and beautiful looking avocado samples.

During the weekend we aimed to connect with avocadoloving consumers and inspire them to try new avocado recipe ideas. We also gave them tips on how to pick the right avocado and how to correctly store avocados at various stages of ripeness.

Our stand was designed to look like a real life kitchen – bright, modern and eye-catching. One wall of the stand was covered in images of delicious-looking avocado dishes, while the other wall depicted a kitchen background with a window looking out onto an avocado orchard. Our Amazing Anytime bright blue was everywhere on our stand, making it one of the first stands that attendees eyes were drawn to as they walked through the festival entrance. The “kitchen” was

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artfully decorated with avocados displayed in glass bowls, cut flowers in vases, and various complementary ingredients for the samples being shared – making our stand look a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach.

Clean-eating, avocado-loving and MotivateMe NZ founder Makaia Carr joined us during the Friday and Saturday afternoon sessions. She spent her time chatting to the audiences about her love for avocados while she demonstrated three trendy avocado recipes – a breakfast smoothie, avocado bliss balls and guacamole.

We had a selfie competition running during the weekend to invite interaction via social media. Visitors to our stand were encouraged to take a selfie somewhere on our stand, post it to social media and use the hashtag #nzavocado – by doing this they went into the draw to win an amazing avocado bliss ball prize pack.

More than 20,000 keen foodies enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather throughout the entire weekend. Those who visited

Punters enjoying our avocado samples at Taste of Auckland.

our stand were eager to try the delicious avocado samples we had on offer – avocado with either cherry tomatoes or smoked salmon on toast, an avocado and blueberry breakfast smoothie, guacamole, avocado bliss balls, avocado and white chocolate tarts, and avocado crème filled cherry tomatoes.

We had a lot of support from our loyal ‘Friends of NZ avocados’ – Go Nutz, Vogels, and NZ King Salmon – as well as support from new ‘Friends of NZ avocados’ – Beekist,

Our student helper Sarah Delfos and Bevan Jelley serving up plenty of delicious avocado samples at Taste of Auckland.

Whittaker’s, Sujon Berries, RealFoods NZ, Down at the Farm, and Fire Dragon Chillies.

We received fantastic feedback from visitors about our stand and everyone seemed to enjoy the avocado samples they tried – we had people coming back for more! Visitors to our stand had many questions about avocados and were very interested in our industry.

Reports

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Updated health claims code

By Midge Munro, Communications Manager, NZ Avocado

midge.munro@nzavocado.co.nz

With Standard 1.2.7 of the Food Code coming into force on 18 January 2016, and compliance now mandatory after the three-year transition, all health and nutrition content claims on labelling and sales collateral for food products in New Zealand and Australia must be compliant – and avocados are no exception. NZ Avocado shares their guide to the updated health claims code for marketers of New Zealand avocados.

What is Standard 1.2.7?

The process for creating Standard 1.2.7 was initiated in 2003 when Food Safety Australia New Zealand was asked to develop a standard to regulate nutrition, health and related claims under a unified and mandatory system.

Why was the new Standard developed?

The Standard was developed to help ensure food businesses were clear on the requirements regarding nutrition and health claims and that such claims are scientifically substantiated.

The Standard was also developed to: • Provide certainty to regulators; • Reduce the risk of misleading and deceptive claims about food; • Expand the range of permitted claims; and • Encourage the industry to innovate and make available new healthy food choices.

Businesses needed to have made changes so all their stock on the market complied by 18 January 2016.

What are health and nutrition content claims?

These are voluntary statements made by food businesses on labels and in advertising about the content of nutrients or substances in a food or the relationship between food and health.

Nourish

There are some general restrictions around being not able to make nutrition content and health claims. Claims cannot be made about: • Kava; or • A food that contains more than 1.15% ABV (alcohol by volume) (except for nutrition content claims about energy, carbohydrate and gluten content); or • An infant formula product.

Also, claims must not: • Refer to the prevention, diagnosis, cure or alleviation of a disease, disorder or condition; or • Compare food with a good that is represented as therapeutic or likely to be taken for therapeutic use; or • Compare vitamin or mineral content with another food unless permitted by the Food Code.

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New Zealand Avocado has reviewed the health and nutrition content claims that have been made in promotional material and has put together a set of messages that are in line with the new code. These have been distributed to marketers. Below is a summary: Permitted high level and general level health claims • A high intake of both fruit and vegetables, including avocado, reduces the risk of coronary heart disease.

• A diet containing an increased (or high) amount of both fruit and vegetables, including avocado, contributes to heart health.

Permitted nutrient content claims

• Avocados are a good source of Dietary Fibre.

• Avocados are a good source of Vitamin B6.

• Avocados are a good source of Folate.

• Avocados are a source of Niacin.

• Avocados are a source of Vitamin E. • Avocados are a source of Vitamin C. • Avocados contain Potassium.

• Avocados are low in sugar.

• Avocados are low in sodium.

If you need assistance with making health and nutrient content claims about avocados, please refer to www.foodstandards.govt.nz or contact Midge Munro at NZ Avocado midge.munro@nzavocado.co.nz

Recipe Avocado chocolate ganache cake

By Nadia Lim

The chocolate ganache on this cake uses avocados and coconut milk as the delicious ingredients that give it its creaminess, however the whole cake is dairy free. The cake itself is super-moist and decadent with the help of rich avocado oil.

Avocados are simply amazing when whizzed up with melted chocolate, producing a thick, silky, creamy ganache. If not using at once, you can freeze the cake before it is iced, but the ganache is best made fresh.

Serves 10 Prep time: 25 minutes Cook time: 1 hour

Chocolate cake 1 ¾ cups brown sugar 2 cups self-raising flour ¾ cup good quality cocoa powder (I used Dutch cocoa powder) 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda (make sure there are no lumps - if there are, sift it) 3 large free-range eggs, whisked 1 cup coconut milk (reserve remaining tin of milk for ganache) ¾ cup oil such as avocado oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil or a light olive oil good pinch of salt ¾ cup hot coffee (e.g. instant, filtered, percolators or espresso)

Garnish Fresh raspberries (or other berries) or berry compote

1. Place all chocolate cake ingredients except coffee into a large mixing bowl and mix together well with a fork, then pour in coffee and continue mixing until a smooth batter. Pour into prepared cake tin and bake for about 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

2. Allow to cool in the tin for at least 20 minutes before releasing spring and removing from tin, then invert cake out onto a plate (so that the flat bottom is now facing up). Leave to cool completely before icing with ganache.

3. To make the avocado chocolate ganache, break chocolate up into pieces and melt in a double boiler or in a glass bowl set above a pot of simmering water (just make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl or else it will risk the chocolate burning or becoming grainy), whilst stirring every now and again. Place avocados, coconut milk, melted chocolate and maple syrup/sugar in a food processor and blend together until creamy and smooth.

Nourish

Avocado chocolate ganache 250g good quality dark 60-75% cocoa chocolate e.g. Whittakers Dark Ghana (Check chocolate is dairy-free if required) flesh of 2 large just-ripe avocados ½ cup coconut milk 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup or sugar

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease and line a 20-23cm spring-form cake tin with baking paper.

4. When cake has completely cooled, use a large serrated knife to carefully cut in half horizontally, keeping equal thickness on both sides as best as you can. Place half on a serving plate and spread over about one third of the ganache, then place other half on top.

Spread remaining ganache all over the top and sides of the cake.

Garnish with berries or berry compote and it’s ready to serve!

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Out and about

Just Avocados, DMS and NZ Avocado field day held at Sid and Simon Turnbulls orchard in November.

Seeka and NZ Avocado field day held at John and Mary Bowen's orchard in November.

Apata and NZ Avocado field day held at Franz and Sandy Imlig's orchard in November.

Trevelyans and NZ Avocado field day held at Ashby and Linda Whitehead's orchard in November.

Out & About

Whangarei Avocado Newbies Group meeting - Rob Walker from Maungatapere Water Company showed the group their main pump station located on the edge of the Wairua River.

NZ Avocado staff planting their avocado trees at NZ Avocado's staff Christmas event. Clockwise from top left: Danni van der Heijden, Glenys Parton, Jo Nunn and Midge Munro.

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SUMMER LOVIN’ HAPPENED SO FAST...

It may have been short, but harvest was smoother than Danny and sweeter than Sandy. Thanks to all our growers for their ongoing support; let’s look forward to a fruitful year together.

The next harvest will roll around quicker than grease lightning and we’re expecting another bumper crop.

“Tell me more. Tell me more...” Talk to the Avo lovers at Apata.

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