Domestic quality report July 2026

Quality remains high with very low bruising throughout 2026

Australian-grown Hass avocados maintained very high quality in June, matching May’s result of 96% acceptable fruit.

In June, only 2.7% of sampled Hass were unacceptably bruised. This result marks the sixth consecutive month of unacceptable bruising affecting less than 3% of sampled Australian Hass.

This is a great result, especially considering the 12-month average unacceptable bruising rate of 4.9% for Australian Hass. During the same period in 2024 and 2025, the average level of unacceptable bruising in Australian Hass was 3.9% and 4.6% respectively (Figure 1).

In previous years of monitoring, higher unacceptable bruising over this period was driven mainly by poor results in one or two cities. This usually arose from very high bruising at a handful of monitored stores, rather than being consistently high citywide.

Although some stores with a history of high bruising have reduced the number of layers of fruit on display and had an associated reduction in bruising, store monitoring metrics – including layers of fruit on display – have not shown a consistent relationship with bruising across the last six months and therefore do not provide a clear explanation for why bruising levels have remained lower over this period.

Figure 1. Unacceptably bruised Australian Hass each year of the project between January and June 2026

South Queensland and New South Wales maturity monitoring wraps up

The AV22011 wholesale maturity monitoring program continued through June, with 4 Hass samples collected from South Queensland and New South Wales. All samples reached the industry standard of minimum 23% dry matter, shown in Figure 2.

Maturity monitoring of South Queensland and New South Wales fruit will now cease due to fruit from these regions consistently meeting the minimum maturity standard.

Figure 2. Hass dry matter levels from fruit sampled from 16 June 2026

Well done to growers GJ & J O’Keefe, KMH Avocados, and Lister Farm whose fruit was sampled and exceeded the minimum maturity standard since 16 June 2026.

To give consumers 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.

More information on dry matter testing is available here (PDF)

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

Acknowledgement

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 17 July 2026 issue of Guacamole, our e-Newsletter.