Welcome to our spring newsletter,
Our “big avocado” made its way to a new permanent spot in Katikati in August following our donation of the sculpture to Open Air Art. The new home is in front of the Katikati Arts Junction and information centre. I had originally commissioned this piece by Katikati craftsman Todd Uttinger for the exit driveway of the Just Avocados’ Woodland Road avocado packhouse which is where it has stood for the past five years. Katch Katikati, the local town promotions agency approached me to donate it to raise awareness of Katikati’s positioning as the “Avocado capital of New Zealand”. We hope the community and visitors enjoy this new addition to the line-up of murals and sculptures in the Main Street of Katikati.
Onto the real avocados, there has been a lot of communication from our team and from the industry about small fruit and select picking. Small fruit, 28 CT and smaller remains challenging with 54% of industry volume packed to date sitting in this bracket. Just Avocados growers are tracking better than that figure. We are managing small fruit volumes well, balancing the need to get fruit off pre flowering but also accommodating those orchards with smaller fruit to size a portion for better values closer to Christmas. John mentions in his update on the next page the need to irrigate before you think you need to this coming summer as the effects of last summer’s drought are evident in the widespread small fruit issue this season.
The team has put together some great resources over the last months for harvesting after rain – a decision tree and how to guide and video to assist you, contractors, and us in making decisions that will help maximise quality at harvest time. Please ensure you review this material which can be found in the articles section of our website.
The brand new JH Leavy & Co. premises in Brisbane is complete and in full use. Reports from Ben Bartlett (JH Leavy & Co. CEO) are that the facility is exceeding expectations and has increased our efficiency of receiving and handling avocados. Even amid the various shipping and port delays, we are receiving our avocado containers faster than our competitors. Ben has also reported that the quality of Just Avocados fruit on arrival into Australia is the best he has ever seen – so well done everyone for a great start to the season.
Inside the following pages, John and Kyra give a roundup of what’s happening in Northland and the Bay of Plenty; Jacob and Midge catch you up on our export market activity; Erica talks about how to ensure you have good pollination and fruitset for our imminent flowering period; we catch up with Nathan Darling from Avoworks; and guest contributor Jerome Demmer from Biostart talks about the use of Mycorrcin in an avocado trial in Maungatapere.
Click the link below to download the full newsletter – Happy reading.
Regards,
Andrew Darling