Avocado market access and trade development (AV20004)
What’s it all about?
Beginning in 2021, this investment is tasked with bolstering industry readiness, knowledge and technical capabilities around export, and delivering work to improve and maintain international market access. Specifically, the project supports the role of an Export Development Manager who will work to help avocado growers take advantage of existing, new and emerging export opportunities.
At a broad level, project work for the Export Development Manager will involve:
Promoting an export culture within the avocado industry and building capacity through:
- Providing technical input into iTAP and HEICC meetings
- Export-related communications to growers via channels such as Talking Avocados magazine and the Best Practice Resource Export Module
- Developing case studies to promote export-readiness
- Delivering regional export forums in main production regions and presenting at other existing industry forums and meetings.
Maintaining and improving trade development and market access through:
- Providing input into the maintenance and implementation of an Avocado Industry Export Strategy
- Developing market access applications
- Supporting the development of R&D investment related to market access
- Supporting technical market access protocols
- Ensuring growers have access to up-to-date MRL data
- Delivering market access training, registration and auditing
- Conducting a range of country-specific activities to promote export
- Supporting the Taste Australia International Trade Program.
Over the past six months, the project team has been busy with a range of activities and communications that have supported the industry's export development. Part of the focus for the second half of 2022 has been producing and publishing two videos (a trade showcase video and a protocol training video) and leading a group of over 20 growers to SE Asia including attending Asia Fruit Logistica.
The project team also directed efforts toward supporting other export-related projects, including Serviced Supply Chains II (AM21000), and was heavily involved in formulating avocado export marketing planning for 2022 to 2024. In the last six months, the project team has been actively working with Hort Innovation and Austrade on a number of initiatives. There are also market visits planned for February 2023 to the middle east with Gulfood and a market visit to Hong Kong to conduct a Shepard training workshop with importers and retailers to help grow the Shepard avocado category.
During this reporting period, the project team have been focusing on:
Market access business cases
A market access business case for South Korea was developed by the Project Team including trade data analysis and consultation with a potential importer. A new business case for Vietnam is currently under development.
Economic case study
An economic case study that provides insights from the Australian table grape industry’s export journey has been completed. A total of four candidates were interviewed (three growers/exporters and Jeff Scott, CEO of the Australian Table Grape Association) to provide the learnings and challenges the industry has encountered in the past 20 years. The outputs from this activity are an interview summary report and a 20 minutes interview video which are available on Avocados Australia’s Best Practice Resource library. The case study content will be shared at the regional export forums.
Regional Export Forums
Due to COVID travel restrictions, one forum has been completed (Western Australia), one has been scheduled for March 2022 in Central Queensland and the remaining (four) are being planned for the remainder of the 2022 calendar year. The content and presentations will be tailored to the needs of each region, guided by consultation with the regional Avocados Australia director and other key growers in the region.
The Western Australia Regional Export Forum was held in May 2021 to promote the Japan protocol and the new online registration system for protocol accreditation.
The regions which are yet to receive protocol market access will be presented with content including trade development, case study, supply chain quality and other key export-related topics.
This project is a strategic levy investment in the Hort Innovation Avocado Fund