Avocadoes Australia CEO Antony Allen says New Zealand's exporters are not paying their fair share in levies, but continue to benefit from the efforts of local marketing campaigns.

"With avocado marketing and production in Australia we’ve built the industry to have an annual consumption of over 3kg (6.6lbs) per capita, and that’s the largest consumption per capita in the English-speaking world," Allen told www.freshfruitportal.com.

"For Australian growers  this has been a challenge for many years, and for the last six years we’ve been pushing for New Zealand to pay a compulsory levy as they have an advantage from the job that we’ve done.

"They pay something similar when they go into the U.S. so it’s not a foreign concept for them. We only ask that if they benefit from exporting here then they contribute to marketing."

Allen mentions that New Zealand pays marketing rebates to the biggest supermarkets, while the country also has a non-voluntary levy that is used at the discretion of the industry.

"We spend AUD$2 million (US$2.02 million) a year on marketing, and if New Zealand were to do the same for the amount of product they send to Australia, this year they would need to have spent AUD$700,000 (US$705,597)," he says.

New Zealand Avocado Growers Association Jen Scoular told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) the industry spends AUD$500,000 (US$503,972) on Australia's promotional campaign.

Allen adds that Australian growers don't want to drive New Zealand exporters out of the country, but are just asking for a fair contribution.

"We don’t want to cut them out of the market but for them to grow, but this means investing in helping us increase the pie itself."

He says Australian avocado growers are expecting at least a 10% rise in production in 2012.

"For 2011-12 we’re expecting 49,500 metric tons (MT) and I’d be surprised if we didn’t get to 55,000MT for the 2012 calendar year."

www.freshfruitportal.com