As Mexico moves into the main part of its avocado growing season, supplies of Fairtrade avocados coming into Canada are good. Discovery Organics based in Vancouver, Canada brings its supply, which looks similar to this time last year, out of Michoacán.
What about demand? "October is Fairtrade month and that was the impetus for us to get back into the Fairtrade supply chain," says Discovery's Stefan Misse, adding that the company used to do direct loads on Fairtrade avocados with Pragor Organic Growers Coop consistently before the pandemic. However, once the supply chain issues emerged via the pandemic and beyond, the risk was too high around accessing trucks, the costs associated with trucks and more. "So we partnered with Equal Exchange in the U.S. and they are importing those avocados from Pragor themselves so now we can minimize our risk and work with them as partners and pull pallets at a time as required and rebuild our Fairtrade program with them."
Gustavo Vallejo Esquivel, president of the Fairtrade certified Pragor Organic Coop in Michoacán, Mexico.
Awareness around Fairtrade avocados
Meanwhile, Misse says that the consumption of Fairtrade avocados could use some more general marketing support. "It's a tough sell sometimes without a really good produce department that can do the job right," he says. "You need to talk about how Fairtrade works and what your dollars are going towards. There's a premium involved–not a lot but it certainly changes the dynamic a bit on pricing."
Given that pricing has been relatively high through the summer months and at the start of the fall on Fairtrade avocados, some easing of that pricing is expected as more volume comes in the next few weeks. "Pricing will be pretty stable over the next few weeks and as we move into the winter season, avocado sales generally climb considerably," Misse says, adding that higher consumption goes until spring which coincides with strong supply as well.
For more information:
Stefan Misse
Discovery Organics
Tel: +1 (604) 299-1683
[email protected]
www.discoveryorganics.ca