Avocado exporters record ‘reasonable’ year

Wheels were rolling at predicted levels to export this year’s avocados, including tankers that transport 12% of the harvest in the form of processed oil. A season that concluded two weeks earlier than expected ended up splitting the difference between the original crop estimate by the Avocado Growers’ Association of 9.5m 4-kg cartons and a revised estimate of 10m cartons. 9.77m cartons were exported, bearing 39m tonnes of fruit. “Our estimates were reasonable, and this allowed for growers and transporters to anticipate logistic needs,” Derek Donkin, CEO for the Tzaneen-based growers’ association, told FTW. “Prices fluctuated, though. It’s not possible to get a contract that sets a price through the entire season. Prices were strong at the start of the season because of frost damage to crops in Israel and Chile. SA’s main avocado export rival, Peru, estimated a large ’09 crop, and we factored that in. But the Peruvian avocados were shipped all at once instead of throughout the season, and this led to a glut and a price drop. It would have been better if they had shipped steadily through the season. But prices stabilised later,” Donkin said. Transporters hired by growers and their agents hauled an average year’s crop, Donkin said, coming off an impressive 2008 performance that saw 12.6m cartons shipped.