Avocados -supposedly abundant!

Well they aren’t Reed, they have the more pear shape Hass generally has. Maybe a Hass or a close looking variety. When ripe do the skins go blackish?

The look like Hass to me, but also no expert.

I take it you’ll be doing a choice article on purchasing hangars with associated vegetation?

350! still thinking that is amazing. I thought avocado was a small tree, but from your photo and comments I take it they grow to a reasonable size. :slight_smile:

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Thanks to @phb links, I agree with everyone’s assessment of these being Hass. Definitely go quite black as they ripen. Makes sense as this was probably self seeded from a previous owner munching on something and discarding the seeds outside. The tree is very tall. I’m guessing about 10m. I have a 4.5m set of shears used to trim it and take the fruit off with. Standing on the top of the hangar, which is about 2.5m up, I’m 1.9m, and I still can’t get to the top of the tree. A lot of fruit is rather an understatement!

As for a review, well…since it is entirely off grid, carbon neutral and coughclimate changecough friendly. Solar panels, inverters, battery systems, recycled water tanks and lots of recycled materials, it might become a political issue, an we’re apparently not supposed to talk about those sort of things being Choice employees…! :stuck_out_tongue:

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I get the impression that you’re just waiting for those newspaper headlines trumpeting “Avocado prices smashed!” - or perhaps “Australians toast the avocado glut!”

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As a consumer I’m not a fan of the major stores ripping off both the suppliers and customers. But they do. I think one of the main services being a very long term member, ACA/Choice does is to try to expose them when they don’t have our interest at heart.

Being a consumer association their primary focus is consumers. Suppliers, be they farmers, growers, services, industry have their own associations to stand up for them. Doesn’t mean as consumers we aren’t supportive of them. Just here we are trying to look after our interests.

These negotiations are complex interactions. I remember many years ago, Unions were being encouraged to be 'responsible negotiators, back then the unwritten rule was Unions will ask for 3X, employer offer X, and they settled on 2X, however, the responsible unions decided to just ask for 2X, the employers still asked for X, and wouldn’t settle for 2X, assuming the standard rules still applied. As consumers we still need to negotiate with our needs in mind.

I don’t want the glut to hit hard, a soft fall would be better, ie, prices lowering as size and quality rise. I think that would be better for consumers and growers. We are now being bombarded with TV ads for avos, which today are small, expensive and poor quality inside.

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In many ways the avocado is the perfect back yard fruit tree, as the fruit doesn’t ripen all at one time ie, a glut. But as commented here the natural trees are very big, too big for most back yards.

Interestingly, they are also too big for commercial growing as well, growers don’t want to rent dozens of Cherry pickers for harvesting. So, Australia has been doing research for decades into dwarfing root-stock, mainly on the Hass or Shepard, the two most common varieties. The Israel root stock ‘Ashcroft’ seems to be the standout.

Sadly, however, this root stock isn’t used in grafted domestic retail trees, but a 4 m high tree, would be ideal for most back yards.

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As I noted from the Avo Growers association came this quote[quote=“grahroll, post:15, topic:14736”]
Avocados Australia chief executive John Tyas “The long and short is that supply will be fairly steady. It could even be a bit short in the first quarter of next year. Supplies might run a bit light into February”
[/quote]

From that I think your hopes of any of the glut making either a hard or softer impact on the market doesn’t look good and as you would also note the CEO from there also said he felt it could even be a tighter supply into the new year which raises the spectre of possible price rises…

The other problem for our markets here is that, in what seems the normal process for any of our produce, most of the prime product is not sold on our shores and is shipped overseas.

I also support your call re Choice looking into market manipulation by our supermarkets but I don’t think Avocado supply and pricing will be something that is being held to ransom by the stores. I, however, could be wrong in this regard but the “evidence” so far points to the growers.

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Oooh thats a nice handy hint! I usually end up eating an entire avo at once because I have never found a way to store them once cut, that I am satisfied with. They always seem to taste wrong, or the texture of the flesh changes when refrigerated… I’ll try the freezing trick when i can again afford to buy avocado.

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On the market size, I recall an article about 12 months ago from the CEO of Gozmen Y Gomez saying that they cannot get enough avocadoes from the local suppliers. Guacamole chews huge amounts of avo, and you could imagine how much a restaurant chain like that would be going through. So, just because there is a lot of fruit available, that doesn’t necessarily translate to bulk at the retail level. Demand from restaurants and other food manufacturers are much bigger influence on pricing and stock levels.