This year has seen much improved growing conditions throughout Australia, following two years of bad weather.
"We had quite drought like conditions until late summer and into autumn which has produced good rainfall events without over saturation of the ground. It was very different to the last two years," said Alison Tolson from Avorama, based in New South Wales.
"The avocado harvest last year was very poor due to the previous year's flooding causing sick trees. Yield was probably down by 60%. Any sick or dying trees have been removed, wood chipped and new plantings have taken place. The farm is now looking much better. The crop for this year is sizing up well and the fruit is clean. No hail storms to damage the fruit so hopefully we have a high percentage of premium grade fruit, which of course gives us better returns.
"Last year due to less crop, we managed to size the fruit up, but the hail damage relegated the fruit to Grade II or processing, it was not a good year."
Avorama export to Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, and are continuing to grow those markets. More countries are becoming accessible to Australian avocados, the Indian market recently opened up to Australian exporters and Avorama have completed the audit process to do so, but have not yet commenced exports.
According to Alison, there has not been any improvement in the domestic market, where there is oversupply and low prices for a while now.
"The crop for this year is looking good, we should have good quality and good-sized fruit. Our other farm at Comboyne will have its first commercial crop this year, so our yield could be up to 4 times that of last year."
There has been no additional planting this year, only trees to replace flood affected trees/areas. These will not come into production for 5 years.
For more information:
Alison Tolson
Avorama
Tel: +61 418 262 595
Email: [email protected]
www.avorama.com.au