Farmers beg Australians to cut their way through an avocado avo-lanch

Mashed on toast, tossed into a salad, or blended into a smoothie; However you eat your avocados, farmers are asking consumers to eat more of them.

Key points: Oversupply of avocados in Australia has caused prices to fall to a record low Growers struggle to meet production costs Increased consumption and exports will be needed to prevent fruit wastage

A new report from food bank Rabobank said Australian growers will produce 22 avocados per Australian this year, up 26% from last year's figures.

Report author Pia Piggott said Australia was on track to produce 124,000 tonnes of avocados this year, an increase of 30,000 tonnes from the previous year. previous year.

Why so much?

Avocado production has exploded in Australia in recent years with huge growth between 2017 and 2019, the report says.

"Each year during this period, more than 1,000 hectares of avocado trees have been planted, and [those] trees have yet to mature and produce avocados,” Ms. Piggott says.

“This year we have seen a big increase, especially in WA, w ith the acreage maturing there.

"And for the next few years we're going to see that increase all over Australia."

Pia Piggott, Associate Analyst at RaboResearch. (Provided by Rabobank)

As consumers have discovered, the increased supply has led to lower prices at the supermarket or greengrocer.

"The simple economy of l Supply and demand tells us that when supply goes up, the price is going to go down, so prices this year are 47% lower than the five-year average as well,” Ms Piggott said.

< p class="_1HzXw">Retail prices for avocados fell to a record low of $1 per fruit in June last year and again earlier this month.

"As the prices went down, we saw that Australian consumers reacted to those prices and increased their consumption," Ms. Piggott said.

"During the past year, the average volume of avocados consumed exports by every Australian household increased by 31.2%.

Export opportunities

The Rabobank report indicates that avocado exports increased by 350% in the last year, with key markets such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

"We can continue to export to these countries, but we can also improve our export access to countries like Thailand and India…and also the Middle East and Japan, and when we do that, we can really drive more volume in the export market,” Ms. Piggott said.

Meanwhile, the low prices have put considerable pressure on growers who are already struggling with rising input costs and labor shortages. returns to growers were the lowest they had been in about 20 years.

"Some growers are ripping out older trees…or non-working blocks that are having issues ", did he declare.