The avocado industry in Mexico's state of Jalisco got the chance to show off its evolution last week at the V Latin American Avocado Congress, with Chinese market access on the horizon.

With around 23,000 hectares, Jalisco is the country's second-largest production region after Michoacan, with 178,000 hectares, but it leads in terms of per-hectare productivity.

Mexico's main avocado market - the U.S. - is still not open to Jalisco avocado exporters, but a delegation from China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) is due to visit later this month, amid much excitement from the industry.

During the event, Fresh Fruit Portal got the chance to visit a farm owned by one of the state's leading companies Agro González, which has more than 1,600 hectares of production. 

Operations manager Gonzalo Cueva said the 30-year-old company had built its own packhouse around a decade ago. Volume moving through the facility has shot up from 24 metric tons (MT) per day in 2007 t0 350MT - and that's just at half capacity.

The extra capacity is there in preparation for growth anticipated in the future, he said.

Agro González currently exports to Canada, Asia and Europe, but Cueva said that "everything is ready" for when China finally opens its doors.

"We are just waiting to cross the finish line. We are ready with the instantiations and packhouses, all that's left is for China to give us the green light."