Avoiding heat stress

Don’t be smashed by the heat this summer!

Working on an avocado orchard can be very hot, so make sure you take steps to protect your workers and yourself from heat stress this summer.

Working in hot and/or humid environments can be uncomfortable, but there is also the potential to suffer heat-related illness which can be fatal.

The risk is not only related to the temperature but a combination of factors which contribute to heat-related problems at work. These include:

  • exposure to direct sunlight, especially during the hottest part of the day
  • carrying out strenuous tasks or work for sustained long periods
  • exposure to additional heat from machinery
  • inadequate cooling off, rest periods or insufficient water consumption
  • climatic conditions (low air movement, high humidity, high temperature)
  • inappropriate clothing
  • factors that may cause dehydration such as poor diet, vomiting, diarrhoea, or alcohol and caffeine consumption.

To minimise the risk of stress to your employees:

  • provide rest areas/refuges to escape the heat that are close to their work and under shelter
  • select workers who have become acclimatised to the work environment
  • where possible, schedule work in cooler times of the year or at night, early morning or late afternoon
  • provide work-rest intervals to ensure sufficient breaks are taken
  • provide cool drinks or water as close as possible to the work area
  • help workers to monitor their hydration status via hydration test strips and urine colour charts
  • encourage workers to avoid diuretic drinks immediately prior to starting work and to rehydrate between shifts
  • encourage workers to consume water at the start of the shift so as to maximise their hydration status
  • ensure they are wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) such as:
    • a hat
    • vented safety eye wear (where safe to do so)
    • protective clothing (especially if made from natural fibre, will provide some protection against contact burns and radiation)
    • wearing light coloured (especially white, and reflective clothing e.g. aluminised)
    • wearing lightweight/cotton undergarments.

Use Workplace Health and Safety’s (WHSQ) heat stress calculator to help you determine the risks of heat stress at your workplace.
For more information about heat stress visit worksafe.qld.gov.au.

 

This article was provided by WorkSafe Queensland for the Guacamole of 21 December, 2017.

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 21/12/17

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.

Facebook connections

Managed by Hort Innovation on behalf of the industry, the Australian Avocados Facebook page is an important component of the industry’s marketing program.
The page is liked by more than 190,000 consumers (whose ‘likes’, comments and shares on the page reach even further to their own digital social circles). This audience continues to grow, with more than 4,000 new fans liking the page since October alone.
The aim of the Facebook page is to share content such as health facts, recipe ideas and hints and tips to consumers in a way that will resonate with the target audience, whilst keeping avocados top of mind for consumers year-round. An example of this is the below post, which speaks to the use of avocado as a butter replacement while utilising pop-culture references, in this case Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones. As of writing, this post has been online for four days, and during this time was seen by more than 355,000 people.

Facebook also allows for two-way conversation with consumers and gives the brand a personality that will make it memorable. Fans of the page regularly tag their friends, extending the reach of the posts and increasing the engagement.

With more than 16 million Australians now on social media, and 35% of these accessing these sites more than five times a day, Facebook is a great place to reach the masses in a cost-effective way.

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for Guacamole 21 December 2017.

Asia Fruit success for avocados & Taste Australia

This article appears in the Spring 2017 edition of Talking Avocados (Volume 28 No 3).

Asia Fruit success for avocados & Taste Australia

Maintaining the value of avocados is the key message for avocado grower Andrew Serra, after attending Asia Fruit Logistica as part of the Hort Innovation Taste Australia campaign.
Mr Serra joined Avocados Australia CEO John Tyas in Hong Kong for the giant trade show.
“The Taste Australia stand really stood out among the 43 exhibiting nations, strongly branding Australian horticultural produce,” Mr Tyas said.
Mr Serra said there was clearly strong demand for Australian avocados, especially in Hong Kong, for both fresh sales and use in the food service sector.
“However, what we need to work toward as an industry is maintaining value in the category,” he said.
“For example, we also grow bananas and while consumption and supply of bananas has increased in recent years by around seven percent, the value has correspondingly decreased by seven percent.” And that’s where export markets could play a key role for avocados, he says. “In five to 10 years, I predict that the smaller fruit is where the interest will be for export, in the premium and first grade categories,” Mr Serra said. “If we are directing the smaller size premium grades overseas, this would also mean more consistent sizing going into domestic markets. That said, we have to keep the eating quality of the fruit high, both domestically and for export markets.”
Speaking to Hort Innovation, Deputy Consul-General and Senior Trade Commissioner for the region, Sam Guthrie said a growing middle class in Asia was demanding quality produce that’s also safe.
“One of the key points about this though, is that it’s an extremely competitive market so whilst there’s a lot of opportunity in Asia, this is a market we have to fight for,” Mr Guthrie said.
“There is so much competition here (in Hong Kong). It’s a wonderful free market, it’s a free protocol market but that means everyone is here and selling their product, be it in the wholesale market or elsewhere.
“It’s really about putting investment and time and commitment into a market in order to seal that opportunity by telling your story effectively.”
Mr Serra said with a goal of Australia producing 100,000 tonnes a year by 2025, having accessible export markets would be important.
“It is forecast that the growing supply of Australian avocados will gradually catch up with the growing domestic demand and provide excess fruit for export,” he said.
Positively, Mr Serra said when he was questioned about Australian avocados during both Asia Fruit Logistica and the market tours surrounding the event, the first point of interest was quality, the second consistent supply of that quality fruit and the third price.
“It also seems to me that there’s a struggle to get good quality avocados on a regular basis in the Hong Kong market,” Mr Serra said.
“The demand is there, the question is whether we can compete on the international market with the strong Australian domestic avocado prices.”
Serra Farming is based at Tolga in North Queensland. The company has been growing avocados for six years and currently has about 8,500 trees, mainly Hass with some Shepard.

More information

Hear more from Sam Guthrie here: www.facebook.com/hortinnovation/videos/1399954430126067/

Nuffield Scholarship: avocado canopy management

This article appears in the Spring 2017 edition of Talking Avocados (Volume 28 No 3).

Nuffield Scholarship: avocado canopy management

The avocado industry’s Dudley Mitchell, an Avocados Australia director, is one of the 24 Nuffield Scholars named for 2018.
Dudley, from Bunbury, Western Australia, has received a scholarship supported by Woolworths, and will study current trends in canopy management of avocado orchards and how cultural practices will need to be addressed when considering high density planting.
“These will include but are not limited to establishment costs, pre-bearing tree management (from nursery to first year), use of PGRs, canopy architecture, pruning methods, machinery selection and use as well as a component of what the future holds in terms of ‘robot ready’ orchard design,” Mr Mitchell said.


“Conventional growing methods have led to a decline in water and land resources and have seen a plateau in profitability across the avocado sector.
“These factors are shifting grower interest away from conventional techniques to the use of high-density avocado planting to remedy these issues.”
However, Mr Mitchell believes the avocado industry’s current architectural growing model is not suited to high density plantings and will seek to identify new growing techniques, technologies and management systems that will be effective in the Australian sector as part of his study. Dudley’s company HCMS Pty Ltd manages Avonova Farms, a 50 hectare avocado orchard producing 800 tonnes of fruit per year on average, and a pack shed, which handles approximately 1,700 tonnes annually. Additionally, he is a co-investor in a planned 50 hectare expansion of the orchard that will be rolled out during the next three years.
“One of the four pillars of the recent Strategic Investment Plan for the avocado industry is to increase productivity by 10 percent without commensurate increases in production costs per kilogram,” Mr Mitchell said.
“Higher density planting may deliver greater productivity initially, and at a similar cost of production, however, without effective canopy management productivity will decline earlier in the life of the orchard when compared to conventional planting methods.
“I will be looking at the avocado industries in Chile, North America, Israel, New Zealand and South Africa during our off season, as well as studying other fruit cropping systems in these areas that have been successful in high density production in an effort to identify principles that can be adopted or adapted,” he said.
“Chile in particular is a world leader in high-density avocado orchards.” Mr Mitchell said the goal was to produce avocados two or three years after planting, rather than four or five.
Speaking to The Land newspaper, Nuffield CEO Jodie Dean said the scholarships had helped build the capacity of young agricultural leaders for more than 67 years.

Varroa mite update 14/11/17

Varroa mite program enters third stage

The below is a varroa mite email update from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, written on 14 November 2017 by Steve Anderson, Program Leader, National Varroa Mite Eradication Program, Biosecurity Queensland.

The National Varroa Mite Eradication Program, which was implemented in response to a detection of varroa mites (Varroa jacobsoni) in Townsville in June 2016, has entered into the third stage of the response – proof of area freedom. If there are no further detections of varroa mite, the program will be on track for the official declaration of eradication from Australia and the reinstatement of area freedom for the Townsville local government area in September 2019.

Until then, the program will concentrate on surveillance activities and community engagement as the hunt for varroa mite continues. If varroa mites or Asian honey bees are still present in the Townsville area, it is essential for the success of the program that they are found and destroyed. With bee activity on the increase in the warmer summer months, we are ramping up calls for the general public to report unusual bee activity and feral nests. We are also undertaking balloon surveillance around the Port of Townsville.

This transition could not have been achieved without the support of the honey bee industry at a national, state and local level, the Townsville beekeeping community and the wider public at large, who have been enthusiastic and cooperative throughout the program.

In particular the Townsville and District Beekeeping Association has been a constant source of assistance and information and have always been willing to assist with a range of activities – including sticky mat testing, other hive testing at more than 50 sites throughout Townsville, swarm reporting and sampling, and are always welcoming to members of the team at their regular meetings. Thank you for your continued assistance!

For those of you who are interested in how this response has tracked, the following timeline should be of interest:

27 June 2016 – 31 August 2016 – Response Phase

1 September 2016 – 28 February 2016 – Eradication Phase

1 March 2017 – 31 August 2019 – Proof of Area Freedom

Movement controls still in force

It’s important to note that, although there have been no varroa mites found since July 2016, movement controls remain in force until area freedom is declared. This means that no beehives, live bees or parts of beehives containing live bees or larvae, can be moved outside the Townsville City Council local government area without appropriate approvals. These should be obtained from Biosecurity Queensland at least seven days before the proposed movement. Contact 13 25 23 or email varroa@daf.qld.gov.au for more information.

Anyone moving live bees through the Townsville City Council area must ensure that bees are packaged and sealed in a manner that prevents the escape of live bees while they transit through the area.

We are also asking the transport industry to continue to “watch their load” on their planes, trains and automobiles (and boats) to make sure there are no rogue nests hitching a ride.

Praise for the Varroa mite team

Our National Varroa Mite Eradication Program team based in Townsville remains dedicated to the job at hand. They recently received a Department of Agriculture and Fisheries achievement award for their efforts, and it is a well-deserved accolade.

We are fortunate to have a team which includes a highly experienced entomologist, two experienced beekeepers and others with a great wealth of experience they have brought to the task. As the summer brings more difficult conditions for surveillance, I am sure the team will maintain their positive attitude and continue to work with industry and the wider community as we strive for area freedom.

Identification

Information and photos that can help you identify Asian honey bees and varroa mite are available at www.beeaware.org.au and general information can be found on the DAF website.

 

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 24/11/17

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.

Digital campaign to keep avocados “top of mind”

As part of Hort Innovation’s grower levy-funded marketing activity for the industry, a three-month digital campaign is underway to keep avocados top of mind.

The latest digital activity has now been live for about eight weeks, with a month remaining of the activity. This campaign involves playing the 30-second television commercial (TVC), and includes placements on catch-up TV sites such as Tenplay and on contextually relevant websites. During the course of the campaign, there has been almost 1.6 million impressions delivered. A single impression is counted when an ad is displayed on a website.

Catch-up TV results have been particularly strong, with a 100% completion rate. That means that every person who watches the ad watched it to the very end. There has also been activity on YouTube, with the 15-second ad running before the selected video (known as a pre-roll). We have now served over 585,000 impressions across the YouTube network. The activity is currently beating all the benchmarks set, and the full results will be reported on after the campaign has finished.

Good Fat a Sydney success

The avocado pop-up restaurant in Sydney, Good Fat, has now been open for nearly three weeks (as at 24 November), with people going wild for it. There was even a fan from Tasmania, Gracie (below) who came up specifically to go to the restaurant.

The media continued to support the restaurant, with highlights including an article on Ladbible, which has more than 29 million Facebook followers worldwide, and a segment on Sunrise. With just over one week left to go of the pop-up (as at 24 November), a full wrap up will be provided upon completion. In the meantime, to check out the menu and cook some of the dishes yourself, go to the website at www.goodfatsydney.com.

 

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for Guacamole 24 November 2017.

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 10/11/17

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.

In-store demonstrations

As part of Hort Innovation’s levy-funded marketing activity for the industry, Australian Avocados has recently undertaken in-store demonstrations in 100 Woolworths stores nationwide. In-store sampling is a highly popular direct marketing tactic that has many benefits, including proven conversion to sales, improved brand loyalty and brand recognition.

Rather than just talking about how great a product tastes, sampling literally puts it in their mouth, with the product then speaking for itself. Introducing a new way of using avocados for many Australians via smoothies fits with the everyday gourmet pillar of the marketing strategy, and helps offer a solution to consumers who don’t know what to do with “the other half”.

There were two Thursday – Saturday sampling periods, from 21-23 October, and 26-28 October. Each session ran for four hours, and involved sampling avocado smoothies and handing out recipe cards. The objective of the in-store demonstrations was to showcase the ease of use and versatility of avocados to consumers via a high traffic retailer at point-of-purchase, with the locations picked based on foot traffic and performance of stores, with a focus on busy metro stores.

During the 100 sessions, there was a total of 13,921 interactions with customers, and 8,918 samples handed out. This equals on average 89 samples handed out to consumers per session. Consumers loved the smoothies, shown by both by their comments, and the number of avocados sold at the store during the demonstration. In all, 10,178 avocados were sold during the sampling period, equating to more than 102 per four-hour session, an amazing conversion rate of 118 percent when you look at the number of samples handed out, with the assumption that one avocado sold = one sale. The promotional staff also used the demonstrations as an opportunity to ask shoppers questions about their attitudes to avocados, and helped educate shoppers on how to pick the perfect avocado based on when they wanted to consume it.

Feedback on the smoothie was overwhelmingly positive, with comments including:

  • “It tastes so good! I usually have my avocados on toast, never thought of making a smoothie”
  • “I love that creamy texture the avocado adds to the smoothie”.

 

    

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for Guacamole 10 November 2017.

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 27/10/17

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.

 

Australian Avocados Facebook page reaching target audience

The Australian Avocados Facebook page has continued to post content that not only reaches a large number of consumers, but is something with which they are highly engaged. Nearly 1.6 million people were reached by the content in the month of September.
The top performer for this month was the “only squeeze me if you want to keep me” post which was successful for its cheeky take on a key message – how to pick the best avocado.

Another popular post was the video from the recent Studio 10 cooking segment. Reaching 389,000 people, it was a great way to expand on the television audience of the cooking demonstration.

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for Guacamole 27 October 2017.

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 13/10/17

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.

 

myfoodbook an avocado promotion success

As part of Hort Innovation’s levy-funded marketing activity for the industry, Australian Avocados worked with myfoodbook in 2016 to create and develop a range of avocado recipes, that could be then used across social media, and the Australian Avocados and myfoodbook websites. The recipes have now been on the myfoodbook website for a year, and have proved very popular amongst consumers. In that year, ending 1 October 2017, the Australian Avocados recipes have been viewed more than 154,000 times. The most popular recipe was the avocado, garlic and cheese pull-apart bread, which had more than 23,000 engagements, which included recipe views, saves, shares, video views and social actions.

The most popular avocado recipes on myfoodbook.

Digital activity

The Australian Avocado digital activity went live on 10 September 2017. This activity involves showing four perfect match videos, as well as the 15 second TV Commercial, and is targeted towards females 25-49.

The aim of this activity is to generate a high level of awareness, with the goal of the campaign to reach more than 1.7 million eyeballs over its duration. The activity will be tailored to relevant environments (i.e Mamamia.com.au for its female audience, and ‘food, lifestyle and health’ related websites for contextual relevancy), as well as on premium catch-up TV placements on 9Now, tenplay etc.

The results for the first three weeks of the campaign were great. The avocado videos were delivered nearly 560,000 impressions in this period. An ‘impression’ is when an ad is displayed on a webpage.

The Australian Avocado digital activity allows us to reach a large amount of our target audience where they are increasingly viewing their media. An example of this was an episode of The Bachelorette that aired on tenplay last week, in which Australian Avocados ads were placed. This single episode on catch-up TV had more than 179,000 viewers on, which were higher viewing figures that the Game of Thrones finale!

 

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for Guacamole 13 October 2017.

 

Australian Avocados Marketing Update 29/9/17

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.

 

August a great month for Australian Avocados on Facebook

Managed by Hort Innovation on behalf of the industry, the Australian Avocados Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AustralianAvocados/) is an important component of the industry’s marketing program. The page is liked by more than 186,000 consumers (whose ‘likes’, comments and shares on the page reach even further to their own digital social circles), and has an ‘always on’ approach that keeps Aussie avocados top of mind for consumers year-round.

More than 1.6 million people were reached by Australian Avocados content in August, the second highest result to date for the page.

The top performer for August 2017 was the ‘avocado satisfaction’ post. It gained the highest engagement rate (amount of comments, shares, ‘likes’ etc), as it caused a huge divide within the Avocado community with some commenters loving it and others not so much. Because of this, it created dialogue within the community with many coming to the agreement that avocados are the best fruit and though the spinning pit was interesting, eating the Avocado was better.

‘Avocado fries’ was the next best hit, as many commenters enjoyed the intriguing nature of the post. ‘Avocado fries’ did well as it was a different way of seeing and eating avocado as it showed avocado as being more than just a spreadable fruit or an embellishment to a main dish. Instead ‘avocado fries’ changed the role of the avocado into a main dish of its own and the community loved it.

‘Avocado Buddha bowl’ was also a hit in August as it referenced a current wholesome and nutritional health food trend. The Buddha bowl is a current food fad in most cafes and wholefood restaurants and it is also a very photogenic dish, worthy of everyone’s Instagram. A lot of the comments on this post centred around the simplicity of making the Buddha Bowl at home, with some commenters even going so far as making it and sharing their own tips and tricks.

 

This update was provided by Hort Innovation for Guacamole 29 September 2017.