2021-Week 8

/

QUICKLINKS

AVOCADO OVERVIEW

SUPPLY UPDATE

Fruit still primarily coming from New Zealand accounting for 49% of the production last week; followed by North Qld with 45%; WA’s contribution has fallen to 4%. The remaining 2% came from Central NSW and Central Qld. Pricing has come back in the market place with Chilean fruit still selling from $10.00-$20.00/tray, NZ fruit is selling $10 --$40/tray and new season Shepards main sales for premium in the range of $36 --$40/tray. New season North Qld Shepards, have again increased slightly in volume climbing to a supply of 133,000 trays last week with a predicted 145,000 to be packed this week from the region. Presentation is generally good with fruit having good shape and glossy skins. Rain in the region has continued to impact harvesting for a number of farms this week. Whilst other farms have completed spot picks and are allowing their crops to continue sizing up before going back in to harvest further. Premium quality NZ tray fruit still selling in the range of $40 --$45/tray dependent upon size - still good volumes of NZ fruit within the marketplace which is expected to continue for at least another week with final supplies being airfreighted to Australia being given priority over other fruits coming from NZ. Pricing for class one fruit (main sales) is ranging $26 --$34 per tray; whilst the bulk market has been experiencing prices for premium in the range of $42 --$50/ctn and for class one and 2nds $10 --$25/ctn.

The availability of suitably sized Shepards for formulation of prepacks should be on target for the changeover from NZ Hass to Australian grown Shepards from next week. There may well still be some New Zealand sourced fruit continued to be used in the formulation of 5 and 6 piece value propositions for some customers.

In terms of Shepard retail pricing in Qld shelf prices were as follows: Aldi Qld price lifted to $2.29 per piece whilst Aldi Victoria celebrated the commencement of their Shepard season with a catalogue price special on count 23/25's at $1.99ea; Woolworths Qld had prominently positioned instore displays of Shepards ticketed at $2.00 ea whilst Coles in Qld were still displaying NZ Skylark Hass with a multi-purchase offer of 2 for $4.00 or if purchased singularly $2.50ea - this fruit was of sound quality and unlike last week, there was a good mix of maturity on offer. Fruit quality on display this week was generally good though there are a few issues with some lines developing anthracnose/body rots amongst Shepard supplies.

SUPERMARKET PRICING FOR THIS WEEK  

RETAIL SNAPSHOTS OF AVOCADOS

Above: Coles Capalaba, Forest Lake and Fairfield Displays

  • Loose NZ Skylark Hass $2.50ea or 2 for $4 at stores, mix of ripe and firm fruit

  • 5 pack netted bags at $10.50 ea

Above: Aldi Capalaba, Forest Lake and Fairfield Stores

  • All stores stocked both NQ Shepards @ $2.29ea and 6 piece Hass at $6.99

Above: Woolworths Capalaba, Forest Lake and Moorooka

  • All stores had Shepard avocados at $2.00ea

  • Capalaba and Moorooka had Hass 5 piece packs at $8.00

  • Capalaba and Forest Lake had 1kg Odd Bunch packs at $9.00

  • Capalaba also had new 3 piece Hass packs at $9.00

BANANA OVERVIEW

SUPPLY UPDATE

The national banana cut last week reduced slightly by 15,448 cartons to a total of 465,040 cartons which represents a decrease of 3.2% on the previous week. National production is expected to be within the range of 450-470K cartons next week. The weather in the past week has seen minimum temps of 19.7 - 22.7C and maximum day temps of 25.3 to 34.3C across all North Qld growing regions. The rain continued to fall intermittently in North Qld last week with a further 40 mm in Mareeba since last Wednesday; whilst the Tully region has had a further rainfall of 314mm for the week up to today with the heaviest day being last Friday with gauges reading of 129.6mm; meanwhile Innisfail’s heaviest day in the last week was also last Friday with a further fall of 88.4mm. Whilst there was some localized flooding experienced last week in relation to the Herbert and Tully river levels rising, this has now eased.

Quality continues to be quite mixed on store shelves with bat and bird damage, sap staining and minor skin marking detracting from fruit appearance. On our own farms, despite grading out the worst of the fruit affected by bat scratching we have not been happy regarding feedback we have received, so this week in the pack shed we have graded even harder discarding more fruit in an effort to ensure good shelf appearance. Waste this week has been in the vicinity of 35-45% of each days pack out due to the amount of damage the local bat population has caused. We will be keen to see how the fruit being sent from farm this week looks after ripening. We expect bat scratched fruit from our region to be in the system for at least a further 6 weeks.

Retail ticket pricing in Queensland for cavendish varied significantly between the major supermarkets with Aldi's ticket price at $2.99/kg; Woolworths at $3.00 to $3.90/kg and Coles offering fruit at $2.00 to $3.50/kg dependent upon the store locality. 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. There was also a few incidences of very dull appearance which appeared to be caused by chilling either whilst the fruit has been in storage or during transport.




RETAIL SNAPSHOT OF BANANAS

Above: Coles Capalaba, Forest Lake and Fairfield

  • Forest Lake and Fairfield were retailing Cavendish @ $3.50 per kg- some minor neck injury, sap staining, scarring were visible. Fruit on display at Capalaba was selling at $2.00 per kg

  • All stores also retailing the 750g kids banded clusters @ $3.00ea

  • Lady Fingers selling @ $7.90 per kg

Above: Aldi Capalaba, Forest Lake and Fairfield

  • All stores had Cavendish @ $2.99, some with skin markings and sap staining

  • Lady Finger bananas were priced @ $5.99, some also with skin markings

  • Lil Snackers packs were priced at $2.49

Above: Woolworths Capalaba, Forest Lake and Moorooka

  • Capalaba and Forest Lake stores had Cavendish bananas priced @ $3.00 per kg and Lil Sana packs also at $3.00

  • Moorooka Woolworths had Cavendish at $3.90/kg and Lil Sana packs at $3.50

  • All stores had Lady Fingers at $6.90/kg with two of the stores needing to refill displays.