Bay of Plenty avocado growers can voice their disappointment on Wednesday about why they won't capitalise on a record yield this season.

The Avocado Industry Council is meeting growers in Katikati and Te Puke on Wednesday to deliver a mid-season update and hear feedback from growers.

New Zealand growers supplied a record five million trays this season, but are expecting a lower orchard gate return.

AIC chief executive Jen Scoular says it has been a 'really tough season”.

'This was a year that growers were anticipating making some money; a lot of growers haven't been getting a great return on their investment and this should have been a year when that return should have been very positive.”

Jen has been getting some backlash from growers.

'I've been getting phone calls. Growers are saying we didn't plan well enough; we should have been doing more new market development.

'At the moment people are saying ‘it's broken – we need more sustainable returns'.

'I'm going out to grower road shows to give them an update, but mostly to listen, to find out where their issues are so we can make sure we are addressing them.”

Jen says the industry had anticipated the high record volume of fruit, which 'we believed we'd planned for”.

The Australian forecast was down and exporters had planned for the Australian market to absorb the extra fruit from New Zealand.

'But the forecasters at the Australian end were inaccurate, so there was a lot of Australian fruit still in the market when New Zealand fruit arrived,” says Jen.

'So we had an oversupply right from the beginning.”

The unexpected supply from Australia was coupled with cold weather during New Zealand's early summer months, which saw fruit staying on the shelves.

'Normally, as summer kicks in, Australia consumer demand really increases.

'But the weather stayed cold so the fruit wasn't going out the door as quickly as normal, or as we anticipated.

'In hindsight, we overestimated the amount of volume we thought the Australian market could take.”

Meanwhile, the fruit still was being shipped.

'We perhaps closed down markets outside of Australia – because we thought the returns weren't good enough – when in hindsight, we should have shipped more to the US and we should have continued shipping to Japan for longer,” says Jen.

Exporters stopped sending to Japan a month earlier than planned when Mexico started coming in with low pricing.
'We thought that the OGR for growers at those sort of prices wasn't sustainable, but in actual fact, it would have been a good return for growers.

'So growers are looking at a return of about $10 a tray, compared to around $20 a tray last season – albeit with twice as much volume.”

The AIC is currently reviewing its export market strategy.

'I think throughout the whole chain, from grower to retail, there needs to be performance measures that we are able to benchmark,” says Jen.

The Mid Season Grower Update;

Wednesday, February 8: Katikati Community Resource Centre, 45 Beach Road, 10am-12pm.

Wednesday, February 8: Te Puke Citizens Club, Jellicoe Street, 2-4pm.