The Country 15/09/26: Brad Siebert talks to Jamie Mackay

0:00So tomorrow September 16 is National Guacamole Day. If you're into your avocados, I'm more of a Kiwi Fruit Blug myself, but to tell us more, and this has been a wonderful marketing exercise for the avocado industry as the chief executive of Avocado NZ, based out of Taoranga, Brad Seberton, well done on a pretty good promotion. It's all on tomorrow, is it Brad? It is. Thank you for having me, Jamie. Yeah, we're turning Guacamole Day into Guacamole Week and trying to get the message out there, and the study just really highlights how Kiwis are starting to eat avocados and more of them. It's a bit of a fraught industry to be involved in, because you certainly seem to have your ups and downs, and as I understand it without avocado, some years you don't even get a crop. Yeah, I mean, you can have pretty good years. It's the mother nature plays a part, like it has done for this season. You can have a pretty good crop. And so the opportunity is always there offshore. Our export volumes are pretty consistent,

1:02making sure we compete well offshore to get value is the ticket. And we often supply almost 50% to the local market. The interesting thing about avocado, unlike almost any other crop, is you can almost pick it all year round. Am I right in saying that? Yep, it'll stay green on the tree until you harvest it. So we don't import avocado. So we grow, hold their fruit, meet windows of value and opportunity offshore and in the local market. And yeah, we harvest essentially 12 months of the year. So we know that Kiwis fruit in particular out of leading the horticulture stables, having a really good season. What are the prospects like for prices for your avocado with your with your record crop? Will you find a home for it all? We will. We've got a lot over 50% over 2.8 million trades. We'll go back into the Australia market, which holds a lot of value for us on the Eastern Seaboard. And so we will. The guys will be recently happy with the returns they get out of Australia this season.

2:03And last season just showed when Australia opportunity wasn't there, we sent 78% of the crop to Asia and Canada. So the opportunity for demand is there. You're trying to convince us to eat a bit more avocado or guacamole. Apparently New Zealand is eating around 3 kilograms of avocado per person. And you're the Aussies are up near five. Yeah, they are and 4.7 and Mexico is 12. So it just shows how nations can increase their consumption. China's 0.03. So you can just see in the Asian markets where the opportunity lies as well to increase that. The correct locally, it's about 3 kg per person. Put the industry into some sort of perspective for me compared to say, I don't know, can we fruit or apples? How many growers have we got? How many hectares have we got in avocado? Because I know there was quite a big expansion in recent times in Northland. Yeah, there has been.

3:04We grow just over 4000 hectares. And we've got a large grow-up base, about 1,500 growers. And so some large scale, right through to some lifestyle auditors who can make a viable go of it, if they're growing in the right place and doing the right approach to it. So the cost of living crisis, because we always joke about the millennials having smashed avocado on toast and their favourite cafe, has that affected the industry, the fact that people have less discretionary income for their smashed avocado on toast? Well, that's what we're saying to the study. Yep, toast is still 70% of how thousands of consumers that we surveyed still like to eat it. And it just shows that at home cafe shift, where 61% of those are choosing to eat it in prepared at home, rather than purchasing at a cafe. And it's only, you know, can be a positive thing because we sell more of the cut-os to more people. So finally, for National Guacamole Day tomorrow, what's happening? What's happening retail-wise?

4:04Have you got specials happening in cafes and supermarkets? Yeah, the retailers will have a good gutter. We're partnering with the main retailers to make sure the promotions are on point. And they may have their own, you know, witnessed around the day as well. So we're pushing as much as we can and getting, just getting the word out. And this study has been really positive to just show how those eating habits are changing. Oh, Brad Seiber, chief executive of avocado, and said, good luck tomorrow for National Guacamole Day. Appreciate it. Thanks, Jamie.