NEW ZEALAND AVOCADO GROWERS NEED A STRONGER LOYALTY CLUB

An avocado is a natural superfood. Everyone in the world should know of its goodness.

Reading in the New Zealand Herald this morning after unexpectedly being gifted a year’s free subscription (delivered each morning) from a lovely, Pakeha and Maori Kiwi couple, I read about avocado growers in New Zealand.

Bascially, avocado growers need a stronger loyalty club to supply to in order to grow this sector of yummy things to eat being grown more in Kiwiland. Living in California turned me into a bit of an avocado freak (it was the spicy Mexican diet that did it. Not to mention the absolute obsession California has with avocado served with sushi). Looking back, it was a Pakeha Uncle who was one of the first New Zealanders to grow avos as a trial, in NZ many years ago.

On school holidays he taught me how to eat them from the shell with soy sauce as his favored seasoning to bring out the flavours of the earth’s creamy fruit. Uncle was so proud of producing his first crop. He would marvel at the way nature produces green and deep purple together in an avocado’s textures.

Today Susan Edmonds writes of Graeme Laurence‘s suggestions to increase the market here in NZ. Laurence who speaks for Fressure Foods suggests that if restaurants buy NZ grown avos then this could generate $1million extra in sales for local gardeners and growers. The article notes that 65% of NZ’s annual crop of 33,000 tonnes is exported. Fast food outlets in NZ import 200 tonnes of frozen avocado pulp sourced via Mexico and Peru each year. Laurence suggests that locals should freeze produce too and give fast food chains the choice of buying their product, if they want to.

My suggestion to growing the avocado market was the creation of fresh chestnut guacomole for the USA and latin American markets. Too yummy! It’s so healthy, any one who fancied themselves living longer, wouldn’t be able to say no to it. Recipe here.

I quite like the idea of the Maori Iwi (tribes) who grow avocado now, exporting to the world avocado fruit and avocado products. Their 1000 year knowledge of healthy cuisine grown in New Zealand could really come to the forefront here, if they worked it. Everyone wins if they do and the world could become a healthier place as a result of all working together. What NZ is about, really!

Thanks Graeme and Susan for sharing your market insights. And thanks to the Northland Kiwis who’ve got the paper arriving as a gift for lite reading, in the mailbox each day. How cute. :)

~Posted by Horiwood Blog, Aotearoa New Zealand, Polynesia Asia-Pacific. 6.5.12~