Chile risk analysis released

The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources (DAWR) has opened the consultation period for its draft report for the review of the biosecurity import requirements for fresh avocado from Chile.

Avocados Australia will be putting in a submission before the 29 April deadline and our Board and DAWR representatives will be meeting in coming weeks to discuss this report and potential implications.

The draft report proposes importation of fresh avocado fruit from all commercial production areas of Chile be permitted, subject to a range of biosecurity requirements.
It’s important that any imports in no way jeopardise the biosecurity of the Australian avocado industry.

Read more

 

 

This article was prepared for the 8 March 2019 edition of Guacamole. 

Avocado partners with Michelin in France

After the successful collaboration between the World Avocado Organization (WAO) and the 2019 Michelin Guide Revelation for Great Britain and Ireland, the avocado will now join the Michelin Guide for the prestigious 2019 Michelin Revelation in France.
Regarded as the Oscars of the food world, the hotly anticipated Michelin Revelation awards stars to fine dining establishments in recognition of quality cuisine.
Avocados are the first fresh produce product to be invited to collaborate with the Michelin Guide in its 110-year history; the partnership highlights the ever-growing popularity of the superfood across Europe.
“We are very proud to continue our collaboration with the Michelin Guide,” WAO President & CEO Xavier Equihua said.
“The revelation of the stars is the most important gastronomic event of the year in France. Numerous star chefs feature the avocado in their creative dishes and we want to further enhance its versatile uses and flavours in the world of gastronomy.”
Food stylist Colette Dike, FoodDeco, will create the first ever edible Michelin Star sculpture made entirely from fresh avocados.
A special edition of the 2019 Michelin Guide for France will also be created to celebrate the collaboration.
“The guide’s cover will fuse the traditional red of the iconic Michelin Guide with the green of the avocado,” Mr Equihua said.
“In honour of the event we are also creating a special edition cookbook dedicated to cooking with avocados – a first of its kind.”
The cookbook is available to download by clicking here.
In 2018, Europe and the UK consumed close to 650 million kilograms of avocados, a 35% increase over 2017. The UK, after France is the second largest market for avocados in Europe and continuing to grow in double digits’ year on year with sales up 26% in the last 12 months alone.
France has been Europe’s number one consumer of avocados for more than 20 years and the avocado has been a French food staple since the 1960s. It is widely considered as one of the most popular superfoods, with almost 159,500 tons consumed in France in 2018 (+30% VS 2017).

This article was prepared for the Guacamole newsletter of 25 January 2019.

Air freight security changes coming

On 1 March 2019, export air cargo, regardless of destination, will need to be examined at piece-level by a Regulated Air Cargo Agent under an Enhanced Air Cargo Examination Notice, or originate from a Known Consignor.

According to the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, this change is necessary to ensure Australia is responding to the evolving terrorist threat.

If you haven’t already done so, please talk to your air cargo supply chain about:

  • if and how the change will impact your current export arrangements. For example, possible changes to delivery times or delays, and possible increases in costs
  • your options to minimise the impact of the change. Think about things such as packaging of your products, handling of consolidated cargo, scheduling of your deliveries, and how your cargo is transported
  • considerations for your business becoming a Known Consignor. Information on the Known Consignor Scheme is available on the Home Affairs website via http://bit.ly/TA294AIR.
More information

Information on the Known Consignor scheme is available via http://bit.ly/TA294AIR.

Information on the piece rate changes is available here.

If you have questions, please contact the Department of Home Affairs at guidancecentre@homeaffairs.gov.au or call 1300 791 581.

 

This article was written for the Summer 2019 edition of Talking Avocados.

 

 

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 21/12/18

Television

Television plays a key role in driving mass awareness of campaign communications, ensuring key messages for Australian Avocados are established at scale.

The Australian Avocados television campaign kicked off on 9 September 2018, and was on air for four weeks. In Burst 2, Brisbane wasn’t included as that market was flush with New Zealand avocado product. This spend was reallocated to the remaining four metro markets (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth) where Western Australian fruit was in good supply, and the ad also on air in northern and southern New South Wales Regional Markets.

The campaign was very successful, hitting all the reach goals: at least 40% of our target audience saw the avocados ad two or more times.

During the campaign, Australian Avocados appeared in nine of the top 10 programs across September and October, including Masterchef, Australian Survivor and The Bachelor. Australian Avocados underpinned this key programming by appearing in consistently rating programs such as news, current affairs shows, Family Feud and The Project. The television campaign then wrapped with a Block finale spot in all markets with the show pulling its largest audience for a finale since 2014, and ensuring the ad was seen by a huge amount of Australians.

Out of home

Out of home advertising plays a key role in driving a frequent reminder of key messages, prompting the audience to consider and act.

The second burst of out of home retail activity for the Smash an Avo campaign launched included three pieces of advertising creative featuring three different meal ideas, encouraging shoppers to ‘smash an avo’ to ‘make sangas better’, ‘make desserts better’ and ‘make salads better’. This was delivered with the overarching campaign message that ‘avos make everything better’, as well as delivering inspiration and purchase reminder, the materials pointed consumers to the www.australianavocados.com.au website.

The advertisements were placed on television screens located at select shopping centres across Australia to inspire consumers while grocery shopping. Australian Avocados were booked on a total of 336 screens nationwide from 5 August to 22 September 2018, across a variety of shopping targeting Grocery Buyers 25-54. The activity reached more than three million people on average of 5.3 times. These results were achieved across 48 paid HD screens and five bonus screens per week across the seven-week campaign. These placements were crucial as a last point of contact for the buyers as this is one of the last interactions on their path to purchase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social media

The ‘always on’ approach to social media for the industry has continued, ensuring avocados remain top of mind for consumers. For the month of October 2018 alone, the Australian Avocados Facebook activity reached 731,758 Australians and served 1.7 million impressions. What is great to see is that since 1 August 2018, 92% of Facebook reaction sentiment has been positive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Myfoodbook

The Australian Avocados subscription with Myfoodbook has been active since November 2017. In that time, there were more than 255,000 recipe views and loyalist actions (saving/sharing recipe). Video content has also been created and shared, with more than 92,500 views, and there are nearly 27,000 engagements with Avocado content on the Myfoodbook social media page. The most popular recipe was the Avocado and Salmon Poke Bowl, viewed by 35,000 people. These figures all show that consumers are loving avocado content!

Avocado recipes have also been featured in the ‘Good for you’ foodbook, which has been downloaded more than 12,600 times, and the ‘Around the World’ foodbook which launched in August 2018 and has already been downloaded nearly 9,000 times. Find all the recipe content and cookbooks at www.myfoodbook.com.au.

Public relations

The aim of the public relations campaign is to give less frequent avocado buyers the confidence to purchase more avocados more often BY reminding, educating and inspiring them with selecting/storing hacks, health tips and mouth-watering recipes BECAUSE avocados make everything better!

To celebrate 25-years of smashed avocado in Australia, Australian Avocados collaborated with Ambassador Bill Granger to create the new avocado dish of 2018. Have you tried Bill’s avocado and smashed cucumber salad, with mirin and sesame?

The dish was seeded to media, alongside a beautifully designed Australian Avocado infographic timeline and a series of new avo-dishes. The program photographed three new exclusive recipes for Australian Avocados to offer to media as ongoing content that celebrates 25 years of ‘smashed avo’. The recipes were developed to showcase the versatility of avocados. The PR program reached more than 12 million Australians, well exceeding the anticipated KPIs of eight million.

 

 

About the marketing program

This is the latest marketing activity that’s helping Aussie consumers connect with (and eat!) Australian avocados. The industry’s marketing is managed by Hort Innovation and funded by the avocado marketing levy. Hort Innovation develops consumer-focused promotions using a variety of mediums including social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube as well as targeted partnerships with consumer-related publications and platforms.

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for the Summer 2019 edition of Talking Avocados.

Hort Innovation - Strategic Levy Investment (Avocado Fund)

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 7/12/18

It has been a big few months for Australian Avocados, with a range of high reaching activity in market.

Television

The most recent television campaign kicked off on 9 September, and was on air for four weeks. The strategic decision was taken to remove Brisbane from Burst 2 of the television campaign for avocados, as the market was flush with New Zealand fruit. This meant the spend could be reallocated to the other four metro markets (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth), and the northern and southern NSW regional markets where Australian fruit was prevalent.

The campaign was very successful, hitting all the reach goals – at least 40% of our target audience saw the avocados ad two or more times.

During the campaign, Australian avocados appeared in nine of the top 10 programs across September and October, including Masterchef, Australian Survivor and The Bachelor. The television campaign then wrapped with a spot in The Block finale in all markets; the show pulled its largest audience for a finale since 2014, ensuring the Australian Avocados ad was seen by a huge amount of Australians.

Digital

The second burst of digital activity ran in August and September, with Programmatic Video, YouTube 6” Bumpers and Spotify 15” Audio making up the asset mix. During the course of the campaign, 10 million impressions were served and all facets of the digital campaign achieving an above-benchmark result including viewability and completion rate.

Out of Home (OOH)

OOH digital screens are the last form of advertising to communicate to the shopper before the purchasing decision is made. They reinforce the message in consumers’ minds and help to drive action before consumers enter the grocery store. Australian Avocados had 689 screens across the August/September burst, and these were seen by more than three million people, on average 10.5 times.

About the marketing program

This is the latest marketing activity that’s helping Aussie consumers connect with (and eat!) Australian avocados. The industry’s marketing is managed by Hort Innovation and funded by the avocado marketing levy. Hort Innovation develops consumer-focused promotions using a variety of mediums including social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube as well as targeted partnerships with consumer-related publications and platforms.

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for the 7 December 2018 edition of Guacamole.

Hort Innovation - Strategic Levy Investment (Avocado Fund)

New project to map avocado DNA

Australian scientists are embarking on a five-year $13.3 million tree DNA project that will help researchers better understand how avocado trees work.

Delivered through Hort Innovation under the Hort Frontiers strategic partnership initiative, this five-year project will develop a breeders genomic toolkit for tree breeders and researchers to better understand how genes control traits that are valuable to Australian growers – such as tree size, yield, disease resistance, and tree maturity.

The research will be conducted by the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) embedded within the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

The project aims to build a complete DNA map that will visualise the genetic make-up and variability of the nation’s five leading tree crops, avocado, mango, macadamia, almond and citrus, representing 80% of the total volume of horticultural tree crop production in Australia. Together, these five crops accounted for around 56% of horticultural tree crop revenue in 2017.

Hort Innovation Chief Executive Officer Matt Brand said while currently profitable, the horticultural tree industry faced numerous and significant challenges that stemmed from plant diseases, slow production and climatic changes.

“Plant production is, by definition, a slow and timely process. This project will breakdown the genetic code of our five leading tree crop varieties to assess ways to develop more resilient trees that can withstand the changes expected in the coming years,” Mr Brand said.

QAAFI Director Professor Robert Henry said the long generation time of tree crop production made it difficult for plant breeders and physiologists to proactively or “rapidly” develop new plant varieties in response to pest and disease outbreaks, changing climate and evolving consumer preference.

“In the case of crops like avocado, there has been some work in the past and we have low-quality data on their genomes, but what this project will do is bring that up to a modern standard by applying the very latest technologies to producing high-quality genomics platform,” Professor Henry said.

He said this would underpin understanding the biology of avocado and extending that how avocado could be produced more efficiently and at a better quality.

“Despite its global popularity and cult-like status in some countries, there is currently only a limited amount of information available on the avocado genome.”

The ‘genomic toolkit’ produced will enable tree breeders and researchers to better understand how genes control traits that are valuable to Australian growers, including tree size, yield, disease resistance, and tree maturity.

Professor Roger Hellens, who will lead QUT’s involvement, said while scientists had discovered a lot about humans’ DNA and the DNA of field crops such as wheat and rice, tree crops were still a “bit of a mystery”.

“In addition to creating opportunities for more adaptable, higher-yielding tree crops, this research combined with advances in robotics and digital agriculture, could really pave the way for the orchard of the future,” Professor Hellens said.

Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Richard Colbeck said this genomic project was essential to ensure Australia’s horticulture industry growth remains competitive domestically and internationally.

“This is a landmark investment in research and development that will improve productivity, farmgate profitability and global competitiveness for Australian horticultural industries,” Minister Colbeck said.

“I am excited the Australian Government was able to contribute to Hort Innovation’s research through Commonwealth co-investment in the Hort Frontiers Advanced Production System Fund.

“Australia’s horticultural industry operates in a highly competitive market—domestically and internationally—and has a reputation for high quality and safety standards across all stages of the supply chain—from the farm to consumers.

“Excluding wine grapes, our competitive horticultural industry is Australia’s third largest agricultural industry, behind meats and grains. For it to remain competitive, our growers need cutting-edge research and efficient production technologies.”

This article was written for the 23 November 2018 edition of Guacamole.

 

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 26/10/18

Digital campaign

Supporting the recent Australian Avocados’ television activity, a range of digital activity during the months of August and September. The strategy consisted of Australian Avocados’ standard 15 and 30-second video ads across catch up television, YouTube six-second bumpers as well as a Spotify 15 second audio spot. All channels achieved above bench mark results during the campaign period.
The catch-up television strategy finished with an overall completion rate of 92% and a viewability rate of 80% while serving out more than 974,000 impressions. Spotify had an audio completion rate of 88% across more than 160,000 impressions, and impressively, YouTube served more than 2,290,000 impressions with a 92% completion rate.
This campaign has delivered well beyond its designated benchmarks through careful planning and strategic up-weighting of channels and strategies to current digital trends such as popular catch up television shows such as The Bachelor Australia, The Block and Australian Survivor, as well as live events such as NRL Final Series which was broadcast live and free on the 9Now app. A definition of some common digital terms are below.

  • Completion Rate – The percentage of all video ads that play through their entire duration to completion. Calculated as complete video plays divided by ads served.
  • Viewability – An online advertising metric that aims to track only impressions that can actually be seen by users. For example, if an ad is loaded at the bottom of a webpage but a user doesn’t scroll down far enough to see it, that impression would not be deemed viewable.
  • Impression – An impression is the display of an ad to a user while viewing a web page. If a single web page contains multiple advertisements from one advertiser, one impression is counted for each ad displayed.
About the marketing program

This is the latest marketing activity that’s helping Aussie consumers connect with (and eat!) Australian avocados. The industry’s marketing is managed by Hort Innovation and funded by the avocado marketing levy. Hort Innovation develops consumer-focused promotions using a variety of mediums including social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube as well as targeted partnerships with consumer-related publications and platforms.

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for the 26 October 2018 edition of Guacamole.

Hort Innovation - Strategic Levy Investment (Avocado Fund)

Hail recovery a long term prospect

Minimising secondary damage will be the key task facing orchardists in eastern growing areas, after devastating hail storms in October.

Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries extension officer Simon Newett said as the storm season continued, it was important for all growers to be prepared for potential hail damage.

“Physical damage to trees lays them open to attack by fungi and insects that take advantage of the wounds, and the loss of canopy exposes the branches to severe sunburn damage,” Mr Newett said.

“In the case of insects, tree wounds release chemicals such as ethylene that appear to act as magnets to some opportunistic insects such as borers.”

For this reason, Mr Newett said it was a good idea to apply a fungicide and insecticide treatment.

“A registered avocado fungicide such as one of the coppers is suitable. The insects most likely to be attracted are borers of various types such as the auger beetle (Xylopsocus gibbicollis) and other ambrosia or pinhole borers.”

The advice from Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF) Mareeba’s Ian Newton and NSW Department of Primary Industries entomologists Craig Maddox and Ruth Huwer is to consider the registered insecticide chlorpyrifos, which is effective against beetles, or trichlorfon which will also be effective and treat spotting bug at the same time if you have fruit present.

“Once the borers are inside the tree it is too late so an application within a few days then a follow up perhaps a week or two later is suggested,” Mr Newett said.

“The advice is to try and avoid using pyrethroids at this early stage of the season for their potential to result in a build-up of other insects such as scale.

“An azoxystrobin fungicide could be used instead of copper but shouldn’t be applied at the same time as chlorpyrifos because of incompatibility.

“The other thing to take action on as soon as possible is sunburn protection. With branches exposed as a result of the loss of leaf cover some sort of sunblock such as white acrylic paint or a proprietary sunburn protection product should be applied to newly exposed branches especially on the northern and western aspects.”

Mr Newett said these products could often be applied in diluted form through orchard sprayers but multiple applications may be necessary to get enough protection. To speed up the canopy re-growth you may also want to apply some extra nitrogen.

“With the loss of crop it does present an opportunity carry out some canopy management, just remember to protect the newly exposed branches and trunks from sunburn before the fast approaching hot weather arrives,” he said.

More information

If you have any queries or want to discuss your particular situation, please contact Simon Newett on 07 5381 1326, 0400 565 784 or simon.newett@daf.qld.gov.au.

For an updated version of this article (2019), click here.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Chris Searle, Ian Newton (QDAF entomologist at Mareeba) and the NSW DPI entomologists Craig Maddox and Ruth Huwer for their advice.

More information on financial assistance

**Note this is time-limited. Please check to see if this assistance is still available.

The Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority now has financial assistance available via the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, for those affected by the Wide Bay-Burnett Severe Storms between 11-14 October 2018. Financial assistance has been activated for primary producers to access low-interest Natural Disaster Assistance and Essential Working Capital Loans. Visit www.qrida.qld.gov.au/current-programs/Disaster-recovery or call 1800 623 946. Those affected directly by the storms may be eligible for low interest loans of up to $100,000 or $250,000, depending on the assistance pool.

 

This article was produced for the Spring 2018 edition of Talking Avocados, and appeared in the 26 October 2018 edition of Guacamole.

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 12/10/18

Out of Home (OOH) digital shopping centre screens are important to the latest Australian Avocados campaign, as the last point of contact for advertising to communicate to the shopper before the purchasing decision is made.

This form of advertising reinforces the message in consumers’ minds and helps to drive action before consumers enter the grocery store and is a critical step for the path to purchase journey.

The OOH activity in the most recent campaign included three pieces of creative featuring three different meal ideas being run on television screens located at select shopping centres across Australia to inspire consumers while grocery shopping.

Australian Avocados were booked on a total of 336 screens nationwide from 5 August to 22 September, across a variety of shopping centres (through Val Morgan Outdoor) targeting our Grocery Buyers 25-54.

The reach of this activity was huge with Val Morgan outdoor activity reaching more than three million people on average of 5.3 times. These results were achieved across 48 paid HD screens and five bonus screens per week across the seven-week campaign. These placements were crucial as a last point of contact for the buyers as this is one of the last interactions on their path to purchase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the marketing program

See the latest marketing activity that’s helping Aussie consumers connect with (and eat!) Australian avocados. The industry’s marketing is managed by Hort Innovation and funded by the avocado marketing levy. Hort Innovation develops consumer-focused promotions using a variety of mediums including social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube as well as targeted partnerships with consumer-related publications and platforms.

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for the 12 October 2018 edition of Guacamole.

Hort Innovation - Strategic Levy Investment (Avocado Fund)

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 28/09/18

The Australian Avocados digital campaign is now commencing its final weeks in market and has shown consistently strong results across all channels within the digital strategy including Catch Up television, Short form, YouTube and Spotify.

The overall campaign completion rates are currently sitting at 87%, with the viewability equalling 80% overall, which is currently exceeding KPI benchmarks of 70%.

Catch Up Television has served out a total of over 674,000 impressions, with the majority served across the major 3 networks’ catch up portals of 7Plus, 9Now and TenPlay.

YouTube Bumpers & Spotify Australian Avocados has now served out over 2.2 million impressions. The audio strategy through Spotify has seen a completion rate of 88%, which shows the strength of our creative in a completely skippable channel with the high engagement showing that the demographic is connecting with the messaging.

The Australian Avocados Facebook page continues to show strong results, and we will ensure that it continues to evolve to maintain its engagement with the target audience. Recent trends that have been noted are the popularity of ‘buzzfeed’ style videos, and delicious healthy swaps like the avo fudge brownies, that make ’bad’ food ‘good’, which will be key in converting our Selective Diet and Occasional Treat personas.

About the marketing program

See the latest marketing activity that’s helping Aussie consumers connect with (and eat!) Australian avocados. The industry’s marketing is managed by Hort Innovation and funded by the avocado marketing levy. Hort Innovation develops consumer-focused promotions using a variety of mediums including social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube as well as targeted partnerships with consumer-related publications and platforms.

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for the 28 September 2018 edition of Guacamole.

Hort Innovation - Strategic Levy Investment (Avocado Fund)