AvoData – New Contributors

The AvoData system continues its development

To date, the team has visited North Queensland, Central Queensland and South Queensland to onboard new packers onto the AvoData system.

We are also pleased to announce that in the second quarter of 2022 we are introducing a mobile application that will enable users to submit their Infocado figures and view reports on-the-go without needing to log onto the desktop version.

The enhancements aim to make the experience as frictionless as possible for users, and we will keep refining the system to minimise the effort needed for participants.

The importance of high industry participation

For the industry as a whole to fully utilise the potential of Infocado and be able to manage the supply of fruit, the data needs to be as accurate and complete as possible. However, the data that is reported via Infocado can only be as good as the data that we receive from all participating packhouses. Even though we regularly verify the accuracy of Infocado data with levy receipts from the federal government, there is room for improvement when it comes to the accuracy of month-to-month volumes, which can only be addressed by increasing the participation rate in each region.

The more data that we collect by direct input from packhouses, the higher the confidence in the data, and in turn the effectiveness of industry planning.

North Queensland

In these terms, North Queensland has been traditionally the region that represented our biggest challenge: it is one of our largest region by volume of fruit produced at around 6 million trays annually currently, with the largest proportion of young trees.  It also has the largest number of independent mid-size packing operations of all regions.

Until recently, the weekly participation rate (via direct contribution) was always below the mark at around 72% of fruit volume. This would make it necessary to model what 28% of the region was packing week to week.

While the total volumes reported have been consistently accurate, that modelled proportion would not account for week-to-week changes that occur during the season However, with participation rates now approaching 90%, the weekly data is much more complete.

The Infocado team was in North Queensland in February 2022 onboarding packers in the region onto the new system ahead of the season commencement. This involved demonstrating the new system, discussing with packers how to interpret the Infocado reports and establishing what insights would be most valuable to their business. It was valuable to hear directly from packers what insights would be most helpful to their business moving forward, so this can be factored into the system development. Some ideas included:

  • Expressing the 4 weekly forecasts by region and/or variety
  • An indication of volume building up in the system
  • Other minor systematic changes to improve the system for industry

It was clear that packhouses see the benefits of contributing to Infocado and having access to the reports and information to assist making decisions in their season and guide conversations with their supply partners. In addition to the standard report, the new system has increased functionality to allow packers to generate bespoke reports specific to their needs and export their own data to excel.

Ensuring we have tools to enable contributors to enter their data efficiently and quickly, remains a key priority for Avocados Australia. The AvoData App will achieve this through enabling contributors to enter their figures and view reports in the app for those who prefer to use this platform over the desktop version. Currently, the app is developed and undergoing internal testing prior to the pilot phase with a select number of packers. We look forward to releasing it to our contributors for use in the near future.

What’s next for the AvoData System Rollout

We will continue taking strides to narrow the gap and bring the national participation rate as close as possible to 100%. With the recent opening of state borders, we can now carry on with this effort to other regions. Our next priority will be to address the participation gap in the Tristate region. The Tristate region has been growing fast, expected to produce  well upwards of 1 million trays per season, and participation rate is proportionally the lowest at about 53%. We will be reaching out to current non-participating packhouses in the area, and hopefully we can get that number as close to 100% as possible.

Acknowledgement

The activity reported in this article is an initiative of the Avocado industry and market data capture and analysis project (AV20000) which is 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.

Author: Daniel Martins and Hayleigh Dawson
Date Published: 19/05/2022