Asia: Consistency key in avocado market

Darling Group Marketing and their New Zealand avocado supply group Just Avocados aim to begin their export season next month.

Key Asian markets for the 2023-24 season are China and Hong Kong with Korea also playing a role.

Sales and marketing manager Shaun McKone says the group has a continued focus on Asia and will re ne their opportunities in this region for the 2023-24 season to manage quality, supply chain e ciencies, and most importantly grower returns.

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“Volumes into Asia will be targeted by value and by channel so we can maximise returns for our New Zealand grower base. e timing of our harvest will be based on Peru being out of the marketplace. With Mexico and Peru both having larger crops this year, our timing will be monitored very closely, and could require a more condensed harvest window.”

Growing partnerships

Darling Group is working towards having on ground representation in Asia soon to assist with market intel and business development.

“Being in the market consistently will support building our channels to market and getting closer to the consumer and mitigate unnecessary costs so that we can extract the best possible value the market has to o er.”

After two di cult seasons and a Western Australia crop that is forecast to be up 140 per cent on last, maximising Asia has added importance.

Shaun says that the 2022-2023 season was challenging with all sections of the supply chain having to overcome factors outside of their control.

“ e unprecedented rainfall was the most disruptive factor and the ow on e ects of not being able to harvest were felt right through to the market. Low packouts, shipping, and oversupply in Australia all contributed to one of the most di cult seasons in recent memory.”

E Numbers

Despite low industry packouts of class 1 fruit in the 2022-23 season, Darling Group exported over 60 per cent of their total harvested fruit, represented over 50 per cent of the industry export volume to China, and they achieved exporting 35 per cent of their class 1 fruit to Asia versus the industry at 25 per cent.

Shaun says they continue to consistently achieve a greater market share in Asia (25 per cent for the 2022-2023 season) versus total export market share.

Looking forward, Darling Group and Just Avocados are developing market and harvest plans that have an emphasis on e ciency for the harvest and packing teams.

“We are focussing on the elements that a ect pro tability that we can have control over such as having a condensed harvest plan that in theory will allow higher packouts and return crop.

“We want to harvest larger volumes over a more condensed period and maximise volumes through the packhouse with the aim of ensuring that twothree days from pick date we are loading containers.”

Gains are also looking to be made in shipping. “Shipping in the 2022-2023 season was the worst it has ever been, but we have seen a signi cant improvement since then in terms of frequency and reliability which creates greater opportunity to service customers in line with the market plan.”