April quality update

Quality remains high as Queensland Hass season begins

96% of fruit deemed acceptable. This is a slight decrease in quality from March, which had 97% acceptable fruit. A mix of Shepard, Hass and Maluma were assessed in April.

The Shepard season is continuing strong, with 98% acceptable fruit in April. Most Shepard samples were grown in North Queensland, with only a small proportion of sampled fruit originating from Central and South Queensland. The only defect present at unacceptable levels was bruising, though its overall impact on quality was low (Figure 1).

Australian-grown Hass were 94% acceptable in April, with stem-end rots being the predominant defect (Figure 1). The first three samples of Central Queensland Hass of the season had all fruit deemed acceptable, marking an excellent start to the season. Central Queensland Hass accounted for a small proportion of Australian Hass sampled in April. The majority of Australian Hass sampled in April 2026 was Western Australian grown, with 93% acceptable fruit.

The excellent quality of Australian-grown fruit in April 2026 is a large improvement on April 2025, when overall acceptability was 88%.

Figure 1. Major defects in Australian-Grown Hass and Shepard in April 2026

Queensland Hass maturity monitoring begins

The AV22011 wholesale maturity monitoring program continued through April, with the first Queensland Hass samples of the season collected. Four North Queensland and three Central Queensland Hass samples were collected. Three of the North Queensland Hass samples failed to meet the industry standard of minimum 23% dry matter. All Central Queensland Hass samples exceeded the industry minimum standard (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Hass dry matter levels from fruit sampled from 8 April 2026

A single Central Queensland Shepard sample was collected in April. This sample had a dry matter of 26%, exceeding the industry standard of minimum 21% dry matter. Maturity monitoring of Central Queensland Shepard has now ended due to samples consistently meeting the industry minimum standard.

Well done to growers Avocado Ridge, Donovan Family Investment Trust, Dorrian Consultancy, Keyes Ag holdings and Simpson Farms whose fruit was sampled and exceeded the minimum maturity standard since 8 April 2026.

To ensure consumers have the best eating experience, ensure that fruit you harvest meets the minimum dry matter standards of 21% for Shepard and 23% for Hass. Continue to monitor your dry matter levels as your harvest progresses.

Read more about dry matter testing.

More information

For further information on retail and wholesale monitoring, contact Adam Goldwater from Applied Horticultural Research (adam.goldwater@ahr.com.au), or Anne Larard (idm@avocado.org.au) from Avocados Australia.

Acknowledgements

The Monitoring Avocado Supply Chain Quality (AV22011) project has been funded by Hort Innovation, using the avocado research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture.

This article appears as part of the 8 May 2026 issue of Guacamole, our e-Newsletter.