On Monday 5 June over 150 industry representatives came together to hear the latest avocado developments related to the domestic market, export markets, food service and international marketing of Australian avocados.

“Avo Connections” – Avocados Australia’s annual forum, brought together key players in the Australian avocado industry and it was an excellent opportunity for networking.

Representatives from Avocados Australia, Hort Innovation, Applied Horticulture Research, Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF), Freshlogic, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, NSW Department of Primary Industries and Austrade spoke at Avo Connections and provided insights into aspects of how the industry is performing, the challenges and opportunities.

John Tyas, CEO of Avocados Australia provided an “Industry Update” giving an overview of the industry’s current position. Other highlights from the event were the presentations that elaborated on Avocados Australia’s priorities such as increasing consumption of avocados and increasing exports to overseas markets.

These were the presentations from Martin Kneebone (Freshlogic) about Food Service, Gillian Reilly and Emma Day (Hort Innovation) on Australian Avocados domestic marketing, and Troy Agosti’s presentation on Australian Avocados export marketing.

Noel Ainsworth and Yiru Chen (QDAF) spoke about the importance of delivering consistent quality to support export growth and how the fruit robustness project (AV21005) will support growers in improving fruit quality.

With sustainability being top of mind for consumers around the world it was good to hear from Dr Anthony Kachenko (Hort Innovation) about the Horticulture Sustainability Framework and what the horticulture industry is doing to make their farming systems sustainable.

Two panel sessions were held during the day providing opportunities for two-way discussion with audience members. Overall, the forum was a great success and Avocados Australia was encouraged to see so many members of the industry turning out for the event.

By Anna Petrou, Avocados Australia.