Next season’s avocado crop from Sunraysia and the Riverland is expected to double. It may even be so high that the harvest will fill 1 million trays. The new forecast is based on the favourable weather conditions and some young plantings coming into production. According to Avocados Australia's tri-state director, Kym Thiel, these good growing conditions will follow last year's light crop of only 435,000 trays.
"The trees were all ready to produce, flowered very heavily, then we had some good setting conditions so the fruit was on the tree — but the single biggest thing is a combination of the mild summer," Thiel said. "We had no real extreme heat through the December, January, February and March period, where traditionally we get excessive fruit drops even if we set large crops."
According to Thiel, the quality of the avocados coming from the region was likely to meet the consumer demand for different sizes and grades, but the large volumes will likely lead to a reduction in the price per tray.
The avocado harvest in Sunraysia and the Riverland starts in July and continues into summer. The most common variety grown in the region is Hass, but there are small volumes of Reed and Lamb Hass too.
Source: abc.net.au