Avocados have been gaining ground globally and have, undeniably, become the trendiest fruit. But so far they have mostly been consumed fresh or in their most famous processed form: guacamole. However, "there's a lot more to avocados," says Enrique García, CEO at Avolution Lab, "and we are showing it."
"When we launched the project exactly one year ago, we said we were going to do what no one else does with avocado: bring all links in the global avocado value chain together. Today, Avolution Lab already has a multidisciplinary team featuring doctors, nutritionists, universities, agricultural irrigation efficiency companies or culinary schools, who work with the fruit in different ways in their respective sectors, with gastronomy as the backbone of the majority of the projects."
"The problem with avocados is that their perishable condition limits the ways in which they can be consumed. To this we must add the fact that consumers, and even many marketers, are not experts in their ripening, so a high amount of fruit is not in the right condition for consumption when opened, which leads to waste." According to FAO, in fact, about one-third of all food produced in the world is wasted at some point in the agri-food chain, "and that translates into millions of tons of wasted avocados," says Enrique.
"At Avo Guys, part of Avolution Lab, we wanted to give avocados a longer shelf life by creating a line of vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free, original and sustainable sauces that would serve as alternatives to mayonnaise, aioli, chocolate cream or butter. All the sauces are made with avocados rejected for use in the fresh market for aesthetic reasons. These delicious and healthy avocado sauces can be stored for up to a year and a half without refrigeration, and Fermín López, head chef of the Superior School of Culinary Arts of Seville, has shown that it is possible to achieve true wonders with them. In fact, after almost 800 different recipes developed over a year at the school, he's still finding new, surprising applications."
"We have launched an avocado gastronomy"
"We could say that with the sauces developed by Avo Guys, Avolution Lab has launched an avocado gastronomy," says Enrique. "We have created formats for the hospitality sector through our Avoreca project, and thanks to an agreement with the Industry and Horeca division of Spain's canned goods specialist Calvo, we have gained a foothold in the processing industry, which is interested in using the Avo Guys sauces as an ingredient to be able to incorporate avocado into their creations."
"We have also made a deal with the Instituto de la Grasa, a world-leading technological center of the CSIC in the field of olive oil, and we want to transfer all that knowledge and experience accumulated over 75 years of study to facilitate the development of extra virgin avocado oil. To this end, and as a starting point, we are going to organize the first international avocado oil contest, which will bring producers from around the world together in one place."
"Lastly, with the by-product of the oil extraction, we close the circle by manufacturing substrate for cultivation; an example of circular economy and sustainability. Avolution Lab is thus the first open innovation hub working on developing new solutions, with avocado as the raw material, and sustainability as a commitment. And all this is being done from Seville," says Enrique enthusiastically to FreshPlaza while seated at the School of Culinary Arts of Seville by the Guadalquivir River.
Today, Avolution Lab has ambassadors in Mexico, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, among others. "Here in Andalusia, we are already working very closely with the main avocado producers in Malaga and Granada, using the Hass avocados that were previously discarded, and generating a lot of value precisely for those avocado producers. We cannot forget that a small or deformed fruit has the same transportation, production and harvesting costs as a perfect fruit."
"We want to be an alternative at origin for that 'ugly' avocado and turn it into a value-added product that has already been introduced in the retail, the hospitality and now also the processing industry; and we want more and more companies to join this project."
For more information:
Avolution Lab
https://avolutionlab.com