Consumers around the world have developed a taste for avocados that growers in Australia cannot plant the trees quickly enough. The fruit has been nicknamed ‘green gold’, but gold rushes don’t last forever, Grant Konias* writes.

Here we’ll look at the challenges faced by avocado packhouses; how retailers’ requirements are expected to change; and why, as Australian businesses are finding sorting and grading solutions enhance packing efficiencies and put packhouses in better shape for the future.

Popularity has brought pressures

One of the biggest challenges in avocado production is the relentless pressure on packhouses to increase throughputs. Though Australia is one of relatively few places on our planet where the climate is suitable for growing avocados, the whole world seems to want them.

Global production is expected to reach 12 million tons by 2030, three times more than in 2010 – but by then, the market could have reached maturity, stabilising demand. And when supply catches up with demand, competition will focus more on product quality, putting packhouses under another pressure: to match high throughputs with consistently high quality.

Another factor that will gain importance is sustainability, especially true because of concerns about water consumption growing avocados, and because the land is being cleared for avocado-growing in some locations through deforestation. Consumers, mindful of such issues, want to know about the provenance of the fresh produce they buy – raising the need for traceability.

This is the ‘Holy Trinity’ for avocado packers: delivering with quantity, quality, and traceability. All three objectives can be met easily, by adopting the state-of-the-art sorting and grading solutions offered by Tomra Food.

Spectrim grades fruit for size and minor to major defects, including skin blemishes,
insect damage, misshapen fruit, bruising and abrasions to suit different markets. 

Raising quantity and quality

The most urgent of those three objectives – increasing packhouse capacity – can be accomplished through automation. Machines are more accurate and consistent than humans, and they do the job more quickly.

As the market in Australia continues to develop and change, along with the growth in export markets, there will be the need for more automation than ever.

Over the past 10 years Tomra has had a huge focus on the avocado category in the Australian market. We have worked closely with our customers to develop and deliver the best-in-breed grading solutions.

These range from infeed and processing equipment and carton handling solutions to Spectrim – the most accurate defect grading package on the market.

One Australian business that has experienced this is Lakeshore Farms, which grows avocados on the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland and runs a state-of-the-art pack centre for its own crops and other farmers.

Business co-owner Matt Kleyn said: “Tomra Food installed our turnkey machine (then branded with the badges of Compac, a business Tomra acquired) approximately five years ago. Tomra couldn’t have been better to work with.

“Every project has to overcome minor issues, but it is how those are dealt with that makes all the difference. Tomra’s willingness to listen to our problems and help solve them has been of limitless value,” Mr Kleyn said.

“Tomra helped us make minor changes to maximise both the efficiency of our machinery and the quality of the job it performs. And continual software updates have enabled us to travel along a path of continual improvement.”

The Tomra 5S Advanced, is the fruit industry’s most advanced and
intuitive sorting platform, optimising productivity, quality and efficiency. 

Inspecting, sorting and grading technologies

Tomra’s industry-leading solutions are ideal for avocado packhouse operations (and also suitable for citrus, apples and other fruit).

The Tomra 5S Advanced, is the fruit industry’s most advanced and intuitive sorting platform. It provides optimisation and efficiency across the line, improving productivity, quality, and efficiency. These include programs for element mixing, exact pack-out optimisation, and throughput control, as well as a Dynamic Lane Balancer.

Unrivalled efficiencies are made possible by the cloud-based data platform Tomra Insight, which can make sorting machines the digital heart of packhouse operations enabling better, data-driven decisions.

When using Spectrim, the avocados are sorted according to colour and surface blemishes. The fruit can be graded for size and minor to major defects, including skin blemishes, insect damage, misshapen fruit, bruising and abrasions and sorting parameters grades for different markets.

Inspectra is a non-invasive solution for internal grading, particularly for dry matter content.

By utilising these solutions, avocado packhouses can eliminate some of their toughest daily operational challenges, enhance efficiencies and profitability, and provide customers with precisely the product quantity and quality they’ve asked for.

*Grant Konias is the regional sales manager in Queensland and the Northern Territory for TOMRA Fresh Food.