By Andrew Cutfield – GM Investor Relations and Supply
The Just Avocados export picking and packing season has come to an end with our packhouses completing their last avocado pack on the 25th of February. Our aim of picking fruit early to penetrate our targeted Asian markets paid off in what has been a difficult season for avocado growers and marketers, with our Pool One results sitting strong against competitors.
Just Avocados represented 55% of the total volume that went to China, and we have set a good base to continue this growth. Across all our key markets in Asia, we represented an average of 37.5% market share. Our total volume into Asia exceeded 390,000 trays, a 400% increase from last season. When considering New Zealand’s total export volume to Asia this year only represents 6.2% of Asia’s total consumption, the need for relevance in these markets is critical.
Our team is working on preparing for the upcoming season and looking to ensure we’re harvesting 70% of fruit by early November (pre-flowering). Due to our early harvest approach in the past, we are seeing solid tree health and good potential crop for next season. We have noted unfortunate damage to orchards from Cyclone Dovi in early February, which will slightly reduce our projected crop for the upcoming season.
Whilst this season’s indicative returns for Pool Two have not seen the same value uplift as we experienced in prior seasons, we still see this later pool as a great tool for growers to spread risk.
As we start planning for next season our key focus will be around how we maximise our harvest and packing capacity to provide the most flexible solution to our growers. We are intensely focused on assisting our growers to maximise their orchard productivity as we see a strong correlation between high yield orchards and profitability. To learn more talk to one of our team today at info@justavocados.co.nz