QUICKLINKS

AVOCADO OVERVIEW

🥑SUPPLY UPDATE

In a nutshell the national production figures for last week were as follows:

· Week 21, 2024 - The industry saw a 5.06% decrease on the previous week’s harvest with a total of 503,712 tray equivalents harvested and transported (approx 25,000 less tray equivalents) on Week 20, 2024 production. The national harvest included Hass variety supplying 457,099 tray equivalents along with 13,139 Shepard tray equivalents together with 33,474 trays of assorted other varieties in this week’s reported figures. It is worthwhile noting that whilst the week’s harvest was just over 500K tray equivalents, some 143K were bulks/processing fruit and 115K were exported, leaving 245K tray equivalents for sale on the domestic market.

Production across the country as would be expected sees North QLD (mainly Hass) accounting for 56.29% of the total production volume this week, Central Queensland accounting for a further 43.00% (Shepard and hass), then trickles from Southen Queensland with hass supply accounting for 0.44%, Central NSW with 0.24% and finally TNR for 0.02%.

· It is forecast that a total of some 514,000 tray equivalents will be despatched this week (Week 22) nationally. This figure can be broken down by variety with the Hass to contribute approximately 465,000 of this total whilst the Shepard variety expected to represent some 8,000 tray equivalents of this total. The focus now is really upon the popular Hass varietal. The central markets are well supplied, to some extent they are heavy particularly when it comes to class one fruit - quality is very mixed and sadly this is eroding value with class one fruit fetching between $7 to $14/tray; premium grades are stronger with main sales still ranging $20-$24/tray - the majority of premium fruit is moving directly to the supermarkets.

In terms of Avocado retail in the major supermarkets in Qld we saw shelf prices as follows - Aldi Hass this week with shelf tickets at $1.19 each; Coles Qld had Hass avocados ticketed at $1.30ea, and Woolworths with Purpleskin Hass at $1.30ea and GMAX avos at $2.50ea. There was a notable presence of lenticel damage on the GMAX avos in some stores.

RETAIL SNAPSHOTS OF AVOCADOS

Below: Coles Displays from Cannon Hill, Garden City and Carindale

Coles stores had Hass on display in size 20-23 at $1.30ea and GMAX at $2.50ea.
5 piece packs at $6.50ea and 1kg packs at $5.50ea.
Organic avos at $4.00ea.

Below: Aldi Displays from Cannon Hill, Garden City and Carindale

The Strand and Purpleskin Hass @ $1.19 each all Ct23.
1kg Avocado nets on special at $4.69ea and 5 piece packs priced at $5.19ea. 3 piece GMAX packs at $5.79ea.

Below: Woolworths Displays from Cannon Hill, Garden City and Carindale

Hass avos in Ct20-25 primarily from Purpleskins were retailing at $1.30ea. Greenskin GMAX avos on display this week for $2.50ea.
Odd Bunch 1kg packs at $5.00ea and 5 piece packs at $5.50ea. Organic at $3.40ea.

BANANA OVERVIEW

🍌SUPPLY UPDATE

The industry transport figures have been a little late in their release, we will update these once we have them. The weather patterns for the last week in the far north have seen early A.M. temperatures have ranged 16.8 - 21.1 C across all major growing regions and day time temperatures have remained warmer ranging 23.5 - 26.8 C. There has been a slight decrease in terms of rainfall across the regions of Mareeba and Walkamin with falls of 0mm - 1.8mm; and a slight increase in the level of rain falls across Innisfail and Tully regions of 54.0 - 57.6mm throughout the week compared with last week.

Retail ticket pricing in Queensland for cavendish bananas has remained stable this week with pricing as follows: Aldi’s banana ticket price at $3.99/kg; Woolies offered fruit at a ticket price of $4.00/kg; and Coles were offering fruit at $4.00/kg in the stores visited. Banana quality in stores still varied with the main defects being still minor neck damage, sooty/blotchy mould and minor skin marking. Stores continue to have signage with regards to these defects being indicative of the growing conditions across the country.

RETAIL SNAPSHOT OF BANANAS

Below: Coles Cannon Hill, Garden City and Carindale

Cavendish were priced at $4.00/kg and Kids packs were at $4.00ea.
Lady Fingers were priced at $5.90/kg, Red Tips at $5.50/kg.
Organic at $6.00/kg.

Below: Aldi Cannon Hill, Garden City and Carindale

Stores had Cavendish @ $3.99/kg.

Havana Bananas @ $4.99/kg this week.

Below: Woolworths Cannon Hill, Garden City and Carindale

Woolworths had Cavendish bananas priced at $4.00/kg, Lil Sana kids banded clusters at $3.50.
Lady fingers were priced at $5.90/kg, Red tips were back at $5.50/kg and Organic Clusters at $6.00/kg.