Apata and Avoco Harvesting and Marketing

A look at the avocado harvest, with one of the country’s biggest post-harvest businesses – Apata Group Ltd. 

The New Zealand avocado crop is forecast to hit record levels for the 2014/15 season with a national crop estimate of around 7 million trays, as much as 5 million of those exported off shore.

Getting that volume of product all picked and packed and off to market is a major exercise. Apata Group Limited is the biggest post-harvest avocado business in the country which, with their involvement with the country’s biggest avocado exporter, makes them a major force in the industry. 

Apata’s orchadists grow the fruit and then Apata provides the services from the harvest onwards. They co-ordinate the harvest, then pack and coolstore the fruit until it is ready for distribution to the marketplace – be that local or export.

The company started back in 1983 when local growers joined foreces to establish a coolstore half way between Katikati and Tauranga. The packhouse was established in 1985 and over the years, the site has been developed to handle both kiwifruit and avocados. In 2013, it formed a partnership with Aerocool that took its capacity to 11 million trays – servicing 250 growers covering 170ha of kiwifruit.

During the harvest season Apata has more than 50 hydraladas operating around the country’s avocado orchards. By early September 2014 APATA had already packed over 200,000 export trays of avocado.

The business uses the latest packing and sorting gear for avocados, including a Invision Optical Grader which is the latest in pre-sorting technology.

In June 2011 Apata bought a share in Primor Produce Limited, an avocado marketing company based in Auckland. Primor then recently merged with Southern Produce to form AVOCO.

AVOCO is the country’s biggest exporter. It has roughly 630 growers in its supply partnerships. Alistair Young is one of the directors of the company, which was formed out of the merger of former export rivals. In its first year of operation, AVOCO exported 1.9 million trays and this season they are predicting more than 5 million.

AVOCO markets 65% of the nation’s avocados. Alistair says the industry is in good heart and the product is getting a lot more traction in Asian countries. The majority of the current crop goes to Australia and then US, Japan and Southeast Asia. Alistair says small varieties are starting to be exported to India.

He says the biggest challenge is getting solid crops year in and year out. Fluctuations in the crop provide difficulties for the marketers. This year’s bumper crop will test the industry says Alistair. Australia has been the traditional market for the NZ crop, but this year’s crop will outstrip demand.

There has been a lot of interest from China for the avocado product and the industry is looking for government assistance to take avocados into that market. Reducing the reliance on exports to Australia is one of the goals of the industry.