October Retail Quality Results

Australian Hass avocados were 91% acceptable in October, matching September’s quality and exceeding the industry target of 90% acceptable fruit. Despite the overall quality being the same across the previous two months, the distribution of defects was quite different. The predominant defect in September was bruising, but there was also a proportion of damage caused by other defects including flesh discolouration, rots and vascular browning. In contrast, almost all of the unacceptably damaged fruit in October was due to bruising (Figure 1).

The overall acceptability of Australian fruit in October 2025 was similar to October 2024. The differences year on year this October include a slightly higher level of bruising (7.5% compared to 7.0%) and a reduction in flesh discolouration (nil compared to 1.3%).

The proportion of Australian fruit with >10% bruising increased 2.6% between September and October this year. The percentage of fruit ready to eat increased significantly between September and October 2025 – rising from 23% to 32% – whilst fruit ready in 1-2 days decreased from 33% to 26%. The average number of fruit layers was higher in October 2025 at 1.5 compared to 1.4 in September and compared to 1.3 in October 2024.

Figure 1. Unacceptable Australian grown fruit by defect type (>10% defects) in September and October 2025.

This article appears as part of the 21 November 2025 issue of Guacamole, our enewsletter.

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