2021-Week 10
/QUICKLINKS
AVOCADO OVERVIEW
SUPPLY UPDATE
North Qld maintains the lead in production with their Shepard season accounting for 67% of total production last week; followed by New Zealand with 18%; Central Qld at 14% and the remaining 1% coming from Central NSW. Pricing has continued its downward trend as volumes increases in the market place. There were another couple of arrivals of NZ Hass last week with premium trays still selling in the range of $30 --$40/tray dependent upon size. This week saw Australian Shepard main sales for premium in the range of $28 -$34/tray. Pricing for class one fruit (main sales) was ranging $20 --$26 per tray; whilst the bulk market has been experiencing prices for premium in the range of $40 --$45/ctn and for class one and 2nds $10 --$30/ctn. All pricing was trending downward by the end of the week.
North Qld Shepard avocados are expected to again increase in numbers this coming week with a forecast of 240,000 trays from the region. In fact the forecast for the next four week period has the tray volume sitting between 240 - 250,000 per week. Presentation in stores this week was again generally good with fruit having good shape and glossy skins. A number of farms, including our own, have had issues with spotting bug, despite implementing preventative spraying programmes as well as control spraying as populations have been detected. We have reset our grading cameras and trained staff in detection, in an effort to remove as many affected pieces as possible.
The availability of suitably sized Australian Shepards for formulation of prepacks is seeing both the 5 pack options and 1kg bags growing in number on supermarket shelves. Aldi this week still had NZ fruit filling their order for their 6 piece bags in most stores.
In terms of Shepard retail pricing in Qld shelf prices were as follows: Aldi Qld price was a competitive $1.99 per piece; Woolworths Qld had prominently positioned instore displays of Shepards ticketed at $2.00 ea whilst Coles in Qld had now swapped over to Shepards with a ticket of 2 for $4.00 or $2.20 singularly. The majority of fruit was of sound quality, odd findings of skin marking and a low level of lenticel damage. Late week specials in Coles Vic and SA have shepards selling 2 for $3.50.
SUPERMARKET & MARKET PRICING FOR NEXT WEEK
RETAIL SNAPSHOTS OF AVOCADOS
Above: Coles Sunnybank Hills, Cannon Hill and Garden City Mt Gravatt Displays
Coles stores had Shepard avocado variety priced at $2.20ea or multibuy offer 2 for $4.00
All stores had 1kg Odd Bunch packs for $7.50
Coles Cannon Hill had 5 piece packs at $8.90
Above: Aldi Sunnybank Hills, Cannon Hill and Garden City Mt Gravatt Displays
Stores stocked both NQ Shepards @ $1.99ea, 6 piece Shepard at $7.99 and 6 piece Hass at $8.99
All fruit was well stocked and of good quality and colour with minimal bruising/damage - odd piece found with sunburn or body rot.
Above: Woolworths Sunnybank Hills, Cannon Hill and Garden City Mt Gravatt Displays
All stores had Shepard avocados at $2.00ea
5 piece packs at $8.00
1kg Odd Bunch packs at $8.50
BANANA OVERVIEW
SUPPLY UPDATE
The national banana cut last week was significantly impacted by the blow through of the tropical low, known as Cyclone Niran, with a decrease of 24.4% which equated to -112,207 cartons less than the previous week. National production was expected to be within the range of 450-470K cartons however with the devastating wind storm causing an average industry loss of 20-25% this was definitely not achievable. It is important to note that the impact of this tropical low varied greatly at an individual level; with some smaller to medium sized farms suffering a much greater percentage loss. In the days immediately following the weather event, affected growers spent a great deal of time salvaging fruit from bent bunches, mulching, tidying and repairing their farms. The weather in the past week has been milder with minimum temperatures ranging 19.4 - 26.0C and maximum day temps of 29.4 to 32.4C. The rain has continued to fall intermittently in North Qld with recordings of 10 -15 mm in Mareeba, Innisfail and Tully across the week; and a further 41mm fell in Walkamin since last Wednesday.
Quality on shelf this week was very disappointing with grey to bronzed dull, marked fruit being a common finding. The presence of dull fruit perhaps relates to fruit age and storage conditions. On our own farms, we continue to grade heavily for bat scratching with this issue expected for another four to five weeks. Waste relating to grade outs of bat marked fruit continues to be in the vicinity of 30-35% of each days pack out - we will continue to be vigilant in this respect to ensure inclusion in our carton is kept to an acceptable level.
Retail ticket pricing in Queensland for cavendish varied between the major supermarkets and for a change Aldi did not have the cheapest ticket price. This week saw Aldi selling at $3.29/kg; Woolworths at $3.00/kg and Coles offering fruit at $3.00 to $3.50/kg dependent upon the store locality. As already stated, quality also varied greatly with a number of lines having visible skin marking including bat scratching, sap staining, rust thrip damage, neck injuries and rub marking.
RETAIL SNAPSHOT OF BANANAS
Above: Coles Sunnybank Hills, Cannon Hill and Garden City Mt Gravatt Displays
With Sunnybank Hills with no Cavendish stocked, Cannon Hill at $3.50 and Garden City at $3.00, Coles was not consistent
However Lady Fingers were $7.90 across the board, as were the kids packs, all at $3.50
Some stock was backwards and some serious sap staining was evident
Above: Aldi Sunnybank Hills, Cannon Hill and Garden City Mt Gravatt Displays
All stores had Cavendish @ $3.29, some with skin markings and sap staining as well as quite a lot of backward fruit
Lady Finger bananas were priced @ $5.99
Above: Woolworths Sunnybank Hills, Cannon Hill and Garden City Mt Gravatt Displays
Woolworths had Cavendish bananas priced at $3.00 and kids packs also at $3.00
Sunnybank Hills and Garden city stores had Lady fingers at $7.50, whilst Cannon Hill priced them at $6.90
The Garden city store also stocked Red tip variety, ticketed at $3.90