NZ Avocado chief executive, Brad Siebert, highlights the possibility of a better season for the avocado farmers across New Zealand, attributing this confidence to favorable weather conditions and a change to an export-oriented approach. The last two seasons brought problems for farmers, highlighted with Cyclone Dovi in 2022 as well as Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023. Both caused a decline in the quality of fruits and reduced the volume of exports and return. But, the strong pollination seen in October last year is predicted to produce a crop of around 7 million trays. That’s an increase of 65% from last year’s 5 million.
Growers are working to reduce the impact of weather on their crops with improved orchard sheltering as well as cutting-edge techniques to grow like 2-D espalier systems. The initiatives are aimed at increasing the quality and productivity of their farms as well as gaining the support of industry for the tests. Geographically speaking, geographically, the Bay of Plenty hosts around 50 percent of the avocados produced mostly in smaller orchards and Northland contributes the majority of production from bigger orchards. Other regions that are contributing to production are Auckland, Gisborne, and Taranaki.
New Zealand Avocado which serves as a growing association and is not engaged in marketing or selling the fruits, a job that is performed by approximately 11 exporters. Siebert highlights the group’s commitment to improving the yields of its growers as well as improving the value of levies. To address the recent issues and pressures from competition The industry has redesigned its strategy of export to improve the resilience of exporters and allow them to benefit from the international market for all fruits types. This change in strategy is intended at delivering better value to producers and ease the pressure on domestic markets at times of peak exports.
The expectation of a positive season can help to strengthen the viability of the industry for banks, after the impact of recent hurricanes and cyclones to export returns. Siebert affirms his confidence when he demonstrates the resilience of the industry and its prospects for rural lenders, assuring that they continue to support the industry of avocados.
Source: HortNews