Export quality report July 2026

Australian Hass remains high quality in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur

Weekly quality monitoring has continued in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong as part of the Avocado International Retail Quality Benchmarking project (AV24015).

Throughout June, Australian Hass avocados across Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur have demonstrated consistently high quality, with 95% of sampled fruit in Hong Kong (6 total samples) and 92% of sampled fruit in Kuala Lumpur (20 total samples) being acceptable (less than 10% internal defects) shown in Figure 1. These results match the Australian Hass quality seen in both cities in May and continue to exceed the industry target of 90% acceptable fruit.

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, rots and flesh discolouration were the only defects present at unacceptable levels (>10% damaged flesh), with both defects rendering nearly 2% of fruit unacceptable. Rots were the only form of flesh damage present at unacceptable levels in Hass exported from competitor countries. Peruvian fruit was the main competitor, with rots leading to nearly 7% of Peruvian fruit being rendered unacceptable. This difference in unacceptable rot levels between Australian and Peruvian fruit is likely due to the large difference in the age of fruit on the retail shelf. On average, Australian fruit was 30 days old compared to Peruvian fruit, which was 50 days old.

Kuala Lumpur

In Kuala Lumpur, bruising, rots, and flesh discolouration were present at unacceptable levels, with all three internal defects affecting roughly the same proportion of sampled fruit. No fruit exported from competitor countries was available on the displays of sampled stores in June.

Figure 1: Quality of Hass avocados at retail in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. The number in brackets is the number of samples collected in June.

Quality monitoring will continue across Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, with four samples collected weekly from major retailers in each city. Project updates will be shared regularly through monthly Guacamole summaries and Talking Avocados articles, as well as at regional forums and webinars.

More information

For further details please contact Henry Hyde at henry.hyde@ahr.com.au or Adam Goldwater at adam.goldwater@ahr.com.au.

Acknowledgement

The Avocado International Retail Quality Benchmarking project (AV24015 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.