One of Florida's biggest green-skinned avocado producers Brooks Tropicals has noted a rapidly growing demand for the fruit thanks to certain superior characteristics over Hass, and plans to move into year-round production.

Photo: Steph L, via Flickr Creative Commons

Company sales and marketing vice-president Bill Brindle told www.freshfruitportal.com sales of the green-skinned avocados had jumped up substantially over the last year alone.

"We're selling about 10% more green-skinned avocados than we did last year and I think it's just because they had a good flavor profile and they're just a little bit different than the Hass avocado," Brindle said.

"So there's an appeal there to additional customers by carrying them."

Brindle pointed out that the variety's size meant it was better suited to certain dishes than the common Hass avocado.

"Green-skinned avocados are typically much larger, so they work really well when you want a larger piece of avocado," he said.

"So you see a lot of people slicing it on their salad because you'll get these big half-inch thick wedges that gives some substance to a salad and there are certain soups where you could chunk them, where as Hass avocado is kind of small so it's hard to get big chunks."

Brindle added the currently season was going well very thanks to various reasons including climatic conditions and improved orchard management practices.

"This is our fourth good season in a row, and that's kind of unusual for us because a lot of times the avocados are alternate bearing, but due to really good weather and some improvements in our cultural practices we've been able to get four good seasons in a row," he said.

"A lot of it has to do with how we're watering the trees as well as applying nutrition to them. More and more growers are using microjet fertilization and watering which can be done much more often than traditional methods."

Brooks Tropicals accounts for roughly half of Florida's green-skinned avocado industry, managing some 2,500 acres of its own production and packing and selling a further 1,000 acres-worth of the fruit from other growers.

It currently sells around 30 truck loads of 40,000 pounds per week.

Brindle said the company was increasing its production principally with new varieties to be harvested at the beginning and end of the typical season in order to supply the fruit year-round.

"In any given week we'll probably have the same or less [production], but we're going to try to have green-skinned avocados from Florida 52 weeks a year," he said.

"In the past we didn't really have green-skinned varieties that came in around March, April and May. So we're basically adding new acreage that's going to give us fruit in the off-season and give us a year-round crop."

Two of Brooks Tropicals' new patented avocados are the Wheeling and Buck varieties.

The Wheeling has already entered commercial production and comes in around February and March, and the Buck has only recently been planted but in a few years it will be harvested from March through May.

Brooks Tropicals green-skinned avocados are also sold under the brand 'SlimCados' as a result of their naturally lower fat content than Hass.

"Due to the varieties that we grow we're able to claim that they have 30% fewer calories and 50% less fat than a Hass avocado," Brindle said.

"And it's not in any way genetically modified - it's just the varieties that we grow have less fat and fewer calories. It's a way of educating the consumer that these particular varieties of avocados have less fat and fewer calories."

Brindle added he imagined green-skinned avocados would have a firm grip on the U.S. market in the future.

"If anything we see it growing and that's why we're planting the additional varieties, so we see a very bright future for green-skinned avocados in Florida," he said.

www.freshfruitportal.com