Western Australia has experienced a 400 per cent increase in export demand for its avocados year-on-year, with the 2023/24 season worth $36.8 million, up from $7.1 million in 2022/23. Growing demand in Asia and the Middle East has fuelled the increase.
Avocados are Western Australia’s highest value fruit industry and reached record production of 65,000 tonnes in 2023/24. That is expected to grow as more orchards mature over the next five years.
WA Agriculture and Food Minister, Jackie Jarvis, said, “The government is working alongside Avocados Australia and industry to establish Western Australia as a preferred supplier of high-quality fruit to customers at home, interstate and overseas.
"It is great to see demand for WA avocados continuing to build across Asia and the Middle East, adding to established markets in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong and strong domestic sales.”
Exports to Japan tripled in 2023/24 from the previous year to 1044 tonnes worth $4.26 million. New protocols with Thailand saw trade recommence after a 10-year break with 789 tonnes worth $3.71 being shipped from WA.
The Gulf region’s jump was due to accepting sea shipments, resulting in 275 tonnes worth $970,000 being exported.
The government and Avocados Australia are hosting a trade delegation from India, Japan, Thailand and the Gulf region, as part of an inbound buyers mission to further grow the market. The trip includes meeting producers and packers in Donnybrook, Manjimup, Pemberton and Busselton in the state’s southwest.
Jarvis said the government was also investing in R&D to optimise orchard production and improve fruit robustness during transit, alongside investments to reinforce the State’s biosecurity status to support market access.
Export roadblocks
Export markets for avocados more broadly are more problematic. At this years Global Food Forum, Costa Group CEO, Marc Werner, talked about the shortcoming of free trade agreements in that they only address tariffs, meaning other barriers like export protocols – biosecurity measures in particular – were overlooked.
Werner pointed out that technical negotiations can take many years and don’t attract the whole-of-government attention given to other products including wine, meat, grain, and lobster.
That lack of being a “trade priority” was “immensely frustrating” for the group, particularly as over the last decade it “had to sit by and watch many other countries with inferior product gain access to China, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Canada and even the US”, he said.
And while Australia has access to Japan – one of the biggest importers of avocados – for avocados grown in Western Australia, it doesn’t for Queensland, where 65 per cent of the country’s avocados are grown.
Apart from the loss of an export market, it also causes an oversupply domestically, which depresses pricing.
“If Queensland had access to Japan, then together with the West Australian access, Australia could supply the Japanese and China markets, year-round, something no other country can do.
“This would not require any complex regulation or threatened actions and fines, but would make a meaningful difference,” Werner said.
Werner said a “whole of government” approach was needed to negotiating export protocols for these products in the same way as the government had backed other exporters, such as barley and wine producers.
“We need the Agricultural Minister, Trade Minister, Foreign Affairs Minister and even the Prime Minister, to take up the cause of export market access for Australian-grown fresh produce,” he said.
Other avocado news:
Hort Innovation has partnered with data company, Lifecycles, to better understand the environmental footprint of Australian avocados by conducting a life cycle assessment
