The demand for avocados is undiminished. "In the past year, some supermarkets have registered a 50% growth in avocado sales," says Hennie van Es, of Total Exotics. "That entails a big challenge, because no producing country is able to keep up with this extra demand. A country like Colombia, who has only had a strong market presence for the past two years, managed to increase its volumes by 188%, but this has not taken a toll on market prices. This scenario is unimaginable for any other fruit or vegetable products."
"Supermarkets cannot continue growing by 50% every year, but there are still retailers with a limited supply of avocados on the shelves, so there is still growth potential, especially when making the switch to ready-to-eat and packaged products," affirms Hennie. "The increasing demand for ready-to-eat avocados can actually be observed all across Europe. For us, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Belgium and France are the key markets, but Scandinavian countries were already quite strongly represented with Hass avocados, so the growth rate in a market like Germany will be even higher."
"We are currently in a transitional season. This year, South Africa supplied a very small volume of fruit due to extreme drought. And the harvest in Mediterranean countries, such as Spain, Israel and Morocco, has been much lower this year, with a 30-35% drop. This resulted in unprecedented rates in January, of around 13-14 Euro per box. This has resulted in fewer promotions and a stabilisation of the market," continues Hennie.
"The supply from Europe is now really going down, so the focus is consequently moving to the South American supply. Chile has had a good harvest, with increased production compared to last year and a good supply of the larger sizes, but there is also a more limited availability of small sizes, which will make things more challenging for us, as packers. I expect solid prices for avocados at least until the end of March; it may actually be possible for them to remain between 14 and 16 Euro per box," concludes Hennie.
