Eight industry resources and online export system open key markets for avocado growers

Australian avocado growers are strengthening export processes and learning about market access opportunities because of $109,176 in grants under the Package Assisting Small Exporters (PASE) extension program.

Two grants were awarded to Avocados Australia Ltd to develop processes to help avocado growers find new export market opportunities and reduce export compliance costs.

Australians already know how good our avocados are. The result of these grants is expected to help the industry expand into new markets and find new fans around the world.

The new resources developed by Avocados Australia clearly step through what avocado growers and packhouse staff must do to meet Japanese and New Zealand avocado import requirements.

These resources have also been designed to accommodate future expansion into new markets, so they stay relevant.

“The new online avocado registration system project streamlines export accreditation enhancing data collection consistency, traceability and transparency.

“Long term this will lead to faster accreditation, increased compliance, increased registrations and decreased administration costs.

Josh Franceschi from The Avocado Collective said there is a pool of growers keen to export their avocados to Japan and they are assisting them with their registration.

“The successful PASE project was great at providing very clear information to help explain the requirements and saved us lots of time with onboarding new growers.

“We’ve been exporting to Japan for a few years now and the application process been always done manually.

“The new online registration program developed through the successful PASE project provides us with a one stop online solution to gather and upload all the required information digitally.”

Further information on the PASE program is available at: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/export/from-australia/package-assisting-small-exporters

More about the Avocado grants

·       Avocados Australia has successfully completed two PASE program grant projects:

  • $79,200 grant to support the development of an online export registration, mapping and phytosanitary data collection platform.
    • $29,976 grant for production of educational materials for growers seeking to access Japanese and New Zealand markets.

·       In 2019/20 Australia exported 4,051 tonnes, representing 4.63 per cent of the 87,546 tonnes produced.

·       Malaysia and Singapore are currently Australia’s main avocado export markets.

·       The Package Assisting Small Exporters was established in 2014-15 to improve market access for small exporters in the dairy, fish, eggs, grain, plant, horticulture, meat and animal industries. The original program supported 58 projects to a total value of $10.45 million.

·       The program was extended in 2019 and in the 2020-21 financial year $4.95 million in grants was awarded for 21 projects to assist small exporters to overcome barriers to market access.

latest stories

More