NZ Avocado chief executive Jen Scoular says the industry faced repeated delays and timetable changes with shipping lines and airlines.
These disruptions and their effects were communicated to the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) on a weekly basis and passed on to a cross-government group concerned with facilitating exports.
Arranged by Auckland International Airport, the head of cargo for Air New Zealand had joined a Zoom meeting of avocado exporters last week to discuss some of the issues.
Major exporter and Avoco director John Carroll says the NZ industry’s plan to diversify more into Asian markets had taken a backward step this season.
“At the beginning of the export season in August, we planned to shift more fruit by ship than air, but changed positioning and scheduling have thrown up lots of issues as the season progresses,” he said.
Fortunately, the Western Australia crop was lighter and NZ fruit had sold well in Australian supermarkets and stores.
Our supply window might be lengthened a little and our larger fruit were bringing very good prices.
“The logistic difficulties mean we are struggling to get good flow and consistency and some fruit arrives later than the permitted times for supermarkets, but we have other outlets,” he said.
Carroll says the industry thought covid-19 lockdowns earlier in the year had occurred at the “right” time for NZ avocados, effectively between seasons.
But since August, the consistent stream of unusual freight problems has made life difficult.
“Normally our shipping lines run like bus timetables, but not this year,” he said.
In the major growing areas of Bay of Plenty and Northland, picking and packing had proceeded well so far without rain delays.
Unfortunately, last summer’s drought had resulted in smaller fruit sizes and a need for more delayed picking to give fruit time to size up.
Nonetheless, Carroll was confident the outcome would be average prices exceeding last year’s orchard gate return of $17-$18/tray.
Scoular says the domestic market was getting really good quality fruit this year, perhaps related to the drought during growing.
NZ Avocado sponsored the Auckland marathon on October 31 and gave out avocado on toast to runners after they finished.
“It was so popular we had queues up to 15 minutes long, which shows Aucklanders really love their avocados,” he said.
