Biggest ever avocado season begins for Apata

The 2011 avocado season has started for New Zealand’s largest avocado post-harvest operator, Apata Limited, with its first trays of class 1 Hass avocados now packed and ready for export to Australia.

Apata National Avocado Manager, Therese Temple, says she is looking forward to this season’s harvest and Apata’s capacity and expertise to pack the bumper crop means it will run smoothly.

“Because we have the best harvesting operating systems and technology in the country to manage avocados with, we will be busy but not overwhelmed. This year is an early start and has the added advantage of being able to supply Australia first up, as well as the US and Japan,” says Therese. “Looking back over historic dry matter results allows Apata to have a line up of fruit available to meet the flow plan requirements of our marketers, Primor.”

Apata began harvesting mid-week last week and expects to have all of its 50 hydraladas in operation across New Zealand in the coming two weeks.

“We have two sites dedicated to avocados – one in the Bay of Plenty, the other in Whangarei. We are expecting to pack 500 bins in the first week, increasing to as high as 1,400 bins within a few weeks, and we will pack more than 1,000 bins of avocados per week for the remainder of the season. We are talking about huge volumes. These bin numbers equate to just over 1 million trays of export fruit for the season, which is massive and will be cause for celebration.”

The first shipment of avocados is expected to leave New Zealand shores this week to Australia, Japan and USA through Apata’s partnership with Auckland-based export marketers, Primor Produce Limited.

Primor Produce director, John Carroll, says this is the biggest year on record but the months of preparation in our international markets, coinciding with the expected high avocado volume, has had positive results.

“We’ve been travelling extensively throughout Asia and Australia confirming well-planned retail programmes for key customers. The high level of service our enthusiastic and experienced team provides to established customers means we are in for an exciting year. Our biggest market remains Australia, and volumes there will reach record levels this season. But the NZ crop is of such a size this season we have good volumes for many Asian customers, and a bigger presence in Japan.

“While these markets will be new to many New Zealanders, they are not new to us. Primor and Apata have worked hard for many years to establish markets and customers outside of Australia, and that is proving beneficial,” says John.

The Avocado Industry Council has predicted that approximately 5.7 million trays of avocado will be picked and packed this season. Primor will export one-third of the avocado market share this season.