Colombia will increase its Hass avocado sales volume by 25% in 2023

“In 2020, despite the pandemic, Colombia’s Hass avocado exports stood at 146.4 million dollars. In 2021 they amounted to 203.7 million and, even though they fell to 178.2 million in 2022, the country expects a 25% increase in sales volume this year.

“We have a great advantage over other countries because we produce avocado at different heights, more or less between 1,700 and 2,500 meters above sea level, which allows us to have fruit all year round. However, winter has had a negative impact on crop yields and has led to a much smaller fruit that has a lower value in international markets, with a productivity loss of 20%,” stated Jorge Restrepo, the president of CorpoHass.

With the arrival of April, the main avocado season, in which 70% of the volume of the campaign is exported, comes to an end giving a start to a slower season, which concentrates 30% of the remaining exports.

“We at Cártama have been exporting about 50 containers a week for the past 10 weeks. Starting next week, Colombian exports will begin to decrease because the main harvest is coming to an end. Export volumes increase again starting week 15.”

In 2022, this company exported 874 tons per container, generating sales of more than 30 million dollars. Based on the behavior they’ve had so far, they expect a high harvest by the end of this year and early next year.

The fruit is already present in almost thirty countries. The Netherlands stands out, with a nearly 50% share. It’s followed by the United States (21%), the United Kingdom (10%), Spain (9%), and Belgium (5%). “We must take into account that, up until a few years ago, Europe was Colombia’s natural market and that, up until two years ago, Cártama exported 90% of its harvest to that continent. Currently, we send the product to our Cártama Europe office in the Netherlands, from where we directly redistribute the product throughout Europe, to countries like Spain, Poland, Russia, Germany, and England. However, for the past year Colombia has been working on a process of enabling orchards available for export to other markets that have a special protocol, such as the United States, which grew by more than 300%,” the company stated.”

*This article is excerpted from freshplaza.com, published 16th March 2023