Avocado Industry Virtual Reality Training Program (AV24010)

This project will enhance stakeholder skills across the avocado supply chain—from orchard to retail—by delivering immersive Virtual Reality (VR) training. The training will focus on industry best practices in temperature management, quality control, and efficient handling, aiming to reduce waste, improve product quality, and drive consumer acceptance and demand.  

Challenge 

Consumer research shows that 4 out of the top 5 barriers to purchasing avocados relate to poor quality, including issues with ripeness, rapid spoilage, bruising, and inconsistency. Additionally, retail staff often lack the necessary knowledge on proper handling, storage, ripening, and display of avocados, impacting product quality at the point of sale. High staff turnover in retail makes traditional training costly, time-consuming, and inefficient. Without consistent education and best-practice implementation across the supply chain, consumer satisfaction and demand for avocados could decline. 

Response  

This project will leverage VR technology to revolutionise avocado supply chain training, ensuring consistent product quality and improved consumer satisfaction. Through interactive, immersive training, stakeholders – including retail staff, pickers, orchard managers, pack-shed packers, suppliers, and aggregators - will gain practical skills and actionable knowledge to standardise best-practice handling and quality management. By fostering collaboration between growers, packers, and retailers, the program will align stakeholders on a shared quality benchmark, ultimately increasing consumer satisfaction and preference for Australian avocados through consistent quality improvements. 

Key deliverables include VR training modules tailored for retail, orchard, and pack-shed environments, along with analytics and insights to measure training effectiveness. Additionally, co-designed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be developed to assess outcomes and drive continuous improvement, ensuring long-term benefits for the entire supply chain.  

Benefit 

This innovative training program will: 

Building on the results and learnings from the FY23, FY24 avocado retail education programs, this project will address existing retail knowledge gaps and improve shopper experiences. By strengthening industry-wide best practices, the project will help drive demand, increase repeat purchases, and solidify the overall market position of Australian avocados.