The Peruvian Hass Avocado Producers Association (ProHass) President Juan Carlos Paredes addresses campaign projections for the upcoming season.

Paredes responds:

How is production looking at the moment?

We are in the initial stage of the flowering process and fruit set, especially in the earliest areas, such as the northern regions like Chiclayo, Trujillo, and Ancash, which together account for 50% of Peru's production. 

The other productive areas are Barranca, Lima, Ica, and Arequipa, which come in later. Generally, the northern zone has production from March-April until July and the central and southern zones start in May until mid-September.

What is the estimated production for the season?

There are some indications due to the rather warm weather, so we have plants that are coming with a little wear, the analyses that are being done regarding plant nutrition for flowering and fruit set are not very normal. 

This could indicate that this season we may have the same volume as in 2023, which is 570,000 tons. This is due to the climatic disorder since the plant has not had night rest to accumulate energy due to the higher temperature. 

In many fields in the north, as the fruit is a little small, farmers have waited for it to grow and we had the hope that by leaving it a little longer on the tree the avocado would grow, however, this has not happened. This has caused the season to be delayed and this has caused more wear on trees.

There has not been an extreme El Niño phenomenon, as was thought. But we had higher temperatures in the last semester of 2023, so the plant has become more tropical, which has caused it to have an excessive presence of leaves, which makes us think that when the flowering comes, the fruit will be scarcer.

How is quality looking?

Fruit quality should not be affected, because in a stress situation, the tree always prefers to give food to the fruit. Those fruits will end up being very well-fed with calcium, magnesium and potassium. The fruit quality is going to come out very good, but the volumes are not going to do as expected. 

Are you working on entering a new market?

This season we finished opening the Malaysian market and we hope to send the first shipments soon. We do not know how much fruit we are going to export, surely there will be a few trial shipments to get to know the market. 

What is your analysis of the markets?

Mexico has already exported approximately 60% of its season, obviously most of its shipments are to the United States. So far what Mexico has sent are small sizes, if that continues, then there would be an opportunity for Peru. 

What commercial strategies are you working on?

In the U.S. market, we participate in the Peruvian Avocado Commission, which by federal law, for every 2.2 pounds of avocado that enters the U.S. a promotion fee is paid. This adds up to about 4 million dollars in marketing efforts. 

We focus a lot on the East Coast, because we try to move away from the Mexican origin, where the vehicle lottery has worked very well for us. 

In the European market, through the World Avocado Organization, we continue with campaigns in supermarkets, and in 2023 we reached 40 supermarkets with promotional campaigns and social networks. This year if all goes well, we expect to reach 50 to 60 supermarkets for promotional campaigns. 

Also through the World Avocado Organization, we are promoting a new market, which is India. It is a potential consumer market with more or less 350 million people who are vegetarians, despite not being a natural market for our avocado, since we are 55 days away, they can buy the fruit from other nearby destinations. 

We have seen that the potential of avocado is enormous and it is a product that is becoming fashionable.