You’re looking at a few grand’s worth of avocados above, but thankfully toast comes relatively cheap.

Yip, most of us love an avo, and South Africa is the continent’s leading producer of the fruit. Technically, it’s a “single-seeded berry”, but now we’re just being pedantic.

We are also the world’s 12th leading producer of avos, and in 2017 we exported 43 492 tonnes of avocados, to the value of R853 million. I’ve done the maths, and that’s R19 612 a tonne.

That’s actually a decrease of 24,8% on 2016’s export total, although that’s largely down to the fact that farmers were hit with a serious drought that year.

So who is eating all of our avos? According to Bizcommunity, it’s the Dutch:

Given how concerned the average buyer is with the avocados’ outward appearance (any damage and it’s straight to the bin), you’ll want to be sure you have a rock solid export logistics company running the show.

The UK comes in at second, although that might be about to change:

…restaurants in the United Kingdom (UK) are reportedly ditching avocados on ethical grounds. They claim that the water-intensive fruit is harming farmers and land in regions such as South America where the fruit is commercially grown…

The UK is the second most important market for South Africa’s avocado exports. Therefore, a reduction in demand for avocados in the UK would have a negative impact on South Africa’s avocado industry. At this stage, it is still unclear how other markets in the European Union (EU) will react to the environmental concerns around avocado production globally.

In order to ensure their avos are sold, exporters are now looking at the Chinese market, which imported 21 343 tonnes, mostly from Chile, Mexico and Peru, in 2017.

Nail that market, and it doesn’t really matter what the ethically-conscious Brits get up to. I imagine there is no shortage of red tape to take care of before that can happen, but our farmers could always team up with Berry & Donaldson.

They assist importers and exporters in their dealings with airlines, shipping companies, and customs-related processes, as well as warehousing, insurance and cargo deliveries.

You grow the avocados, and they’ll take care of the rest.

God forbid there’s ever a shortage, because I pity anybody who comes between Millennials and their smashed avo on toast.

[source:bizcommunity]