Avocado congress set to bear fruit

Hosting event puts NZ growers on global stage

We are now two years out from hosting the 2023 World Avocado Congress in New Zealand and we are starting to progress our plans.

The World Avocado Congress — held every four years — represents an extraordinary opportunity for avocado industries and horticulture sectors from around the globe to come together. The event is hosted by the country that is voted in by all attendees of the previous congress. A World Avocado Congress committee supports the host country, but the planning, financials and structure of the congress is left up to the host country.

We see hosting as a wonderful opportunity for New Zealand avocado growers. There are often 50 or more growers who travel to distant shores to attend the congress.

For the remaining 1700 New Zealand growers, this is a once-in-a lifetime chance to meet with the global avocado community and learn from the best avocado minds in the world on productivity, pest and disease, sustainability, marketing and cool chain. In Colombia, 82 different speakers covered a huge range of topics, and we are already hearing from international scientists and marketers keen to speak at the congress.

Visibility for New Zealand, our avocado industry and our people will be on show for those attending, but the congress also receives significant attention on the world stage through global media, in the lead up to the congress, throughout the four-day event, and for a period after the congress.

Customers buying avocados from New Zealand have a very real opportunity to see the whole supply chain, on the world stage, when they attend. Of course that fantastic temptation to use this as a reason to visit New Zealand is very real too. Our exporters are already thinking about what they might do to entertain their customers while in New Zealand, be that with fishing trips, golf, wine tasting and the range of unique tourism opportunities we have on offer here.

For our scientific partners, this is a huge opportunity to demonstrate their competence across avocados and horticulture. For many of our scientists, this might be their first, but hopefully not last, opportunity to present in front of a global audience.

Field days to our growing regions will also allow the New Zealand industry to showcase how well we grow avocados in our temperate climate, how passionate our growers are about avocados, and some of the innovation that is happening at grass roots level.

It’s an exciting chapter for our industry, one I am very thrilled to be part of.