SOURCE: Gerhard Uys, Stuff
Chaos in the shipping industry has contributed to avocado exports plunging in the past year – although the tough times for growers mean a silver lining for local avocado lovers.
Export revenue for the avocado industry was down 61% year-on-year according to the latest Ministry for Primary Industries outlook. Besides what New Zealand Avocado chief executive Jen Scoular described as chaotic delays in shipping, a glut of the fruit in Australia also contributed.
Prices there hit a 15-year low of $1 for a single fruit, making exporting from New Zealand uneconomic. Normally our biggest avocado market, exports across the Tasman fell 76% year on year. About 10% of the intended export crop ended up being sold domestically.
Scoular said that the problems with shipping saw exporters finding booked consignments missing delivery dates because of delays or changes to schedules, or ships simply skipping ports they had been expected to stop at.
One consequence of that problem was that the usual practice of staggering deliveries so avocados arrived at different times were up-ended. Deliveries arrived in export markets all at once, leading to an over-supply into supermarkets and resulting wastage, as well as fruit that was nearing its sell-by date and faced become unsellable.
Prices for those who did export to Australia were 60% lower than what would be achieved normally.
The depressed price opened up Asian markets, however, and some 1.5 million trays of avocados were sold there, almost three times the volume of a year earlier, MPI said. However, the prices and profits were still down on what growers would normally expect.
Scoular said that the domestic market saw a 10% lift in supply, but again at prices below what would have been achieved in a normal export year. Local sales prices were consistent throughout the entire year and provided some security for growers, Scoular said.
Alistair Young, who grows avocado north of Kerikeri, said the region’s season was disrupted by a February cyclone. High winds blew crops ready for harvest from trees, and also blew from the trees almost 30% of crops that would be harvested in the following season. This meant growers made losses before the season even began.
Storms were regional with growers south of Kerikeri not impacted as much, Young said.
Avocado growers grouped together to sell to a specific market, meaning the pool of growers were able to absorb the losses from unfulfilled fruit sales together. This protected individual growers from making a big loss in a bad year, Young said.
Besides the shipping and over-supply problem, Covid-19 disruption to supermarkets and their distribution centres also contributed to a difficult year. There were delays in products reaching shelves, further affecting fruit quality and the amount of fruit that was eventually sold, Young said.