What was it all about?

This project, which ended in 2017, was a continuation of earlier industry benchmarking work. Its goal was to further the development of an industry database and benchmarking process to enable growers to identify and strive for Australian best practice in production, packing and marketing of avocados.

It involved the collection of data from 82 individual grower businesses over four consecutive financial years, analysis of this data, the provision of confidential individual reports to participating growers, and the distribution of aggregated high-level project findings to the industry at large.

Over the four years the project was active…

• Participating growers recorded an average yield of 9.23 tonnes per producing hectare per year, declining by five per cent over the project period (median farm size was 10.5 producing hectares)
  
  
• Mid-sized fruit accounted for 49 per cent of fruit sold, and premium grade fruit represented 70 per cent
  
  
• Labour productivity over the period averaged 52 tonnes produced and sold per full-time employee equivalent (FTE) per year, declining by 24 per cent over the study period
  
  
• Prices paid for fresh market avocados increased by 62 per cent per tray equivalent (5.5kg) sold.

The project outputs enabled comparisons between growers based on a combination of location, business size (turnover, volume or tree numbers) and principal varietal type over multiple years – putting growers in a position to identify those areas that impact greatest on their productive and financial performance.