Heavy rains in Israel since the end of December have delayed the avocado harvest by one week. According to Yonatan Meron, Export Manager of Granot Fresh, "2024 was a good year for us and the 2024-25 season started well in October. The end of 2024 was more challenging than we thought it would be. The Hass demand decreased more than most people expected before the holidays."
"The big rains at the end of December slowed us down. We don't expect to have rain in the next 7–10 days. Hass is the main challenge for us, it is the biggest planted variety and the most sensitive we have. We are handling it very carefully to be sure we are not dropping behind in volume. Then we will be stuck with a good market but with possible challenges on quality, especially the dry matter. We are trying to push the packing to fast track and to not reach April with a lot of fruit still on the trees," explains Meron.
He says they aim to finish the season at the end of March. "Every time we have this kind of week it puts us behind. When we have such a week with rain, the soil is soaked we cannot immediately come back to the pace we can pack, we can't do double the next week. We're looking for solutions to not widen the gap and aim to follow the programs."
Kenya avocado exports
Meron notes they will have their first harvest in their new avocado farm in Kenya later this year. "Next summer we will harvest in Kenya from our own plantation. We do operate from Kenya with other partners. The big challenge is the logistics, the Suez Canal must be solved before the Kenyan season starts," concludes Meron.
For more information:
Yonatan Meron
Granot Fresh
Tel: +972 52 680880
[email protected]
www.granotfresh.com