Avocado producers are struggling to keep up with the nation’s obsession with the fruit as a harvest season gap has forced many to ration their supplies, including cafes and supermarkets.
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Reports of cafes taking avocados off the menu and retailers selling the fruit for over $5 a piece have become commonplace over the past month. But Avocado Australia Chief Executive John Tyas says the drop in supply isn’t completely surprising.
“It wasn’t completely surprising, as not only is summer the peak consumer demand period, it is also the time when our domestic levels are reduced,” Mr Tyas said in a statement.
“The commonly tight summer supply period has been exacerbated by the reduced New Zealand crop and the usual logistical issue of moving produce during the Christmas period.”
While brunch goers and smashed avo lovers might be fretting over the shortage, avocado producer Kevin Debreceny says prices have never been better for those on the farm.
Mr Debreceny, of Comboyne Avocados, planted his first trees in 2000. Eighteen years on and 6000 avocado trees later, prices have hit an all-time high.
“We are seeing really quality prices at the moment,” Mr Debreceny says.
“Comboyne had a mild winter which was followed by a good growing season, despite the dry.”
With Comboyne’s climate bringing on harvest later in the year – from August through to Christmas - it’s an ideal place for producing the much-loved fruit.
The Mid North Coast’s handy harvesting window fits between northern NSW, where they pick mid-year, and New Zealand and Western Australia, where they are currently harvesting, ensuring consumers can enjoy the fruit year-round.
With prices remaining promising for producers and supply numbers set to rise, Avocado Australia’s Mr Tyas says it should only be a matter of weeks, if not days, before consumers can again enjoy their usually order of smashed avo.
