THE avocado levy is working well according to industry body Avocados Australia.
The organisation has defended its levy structure in a detailed response to the concerns raised by three Western Australian growers.
Avocados Australia chief executive office John Tyas flatly refuted the WA growers’ suggestion they were receiving poor returns from the levy.
“I would argue that they have received very good returns on their avocado levy investment,” Mr Tyas said.
“If Mr Neil Delroy says he is paying $2000 per hectare per year, this would suggest that he produces around 27 tonnes of fresh avocados per hectare.
“Twenty-seven tonnes of avocados on today’s wholesale market is worth about $160,000. Those producing more will pay more, but are likely to benefit more, particularly from investments that build demand.
“The Australian market is currently moving 25 per cent more avocados than it was at the same time last year and the year before. That doesn’t happen by accident.”
He pointed out that the people pushing for levy changes are currently benefiting from the efforts and levy investment paid by other growers over the past 25 years or more.
“I think they should be grateful, and they should be able to see the value in industry working together to address issues of market failure to deliver further benefits into the future,” Mr Tyas said.
According to Avocados Australia, the levy system enables industry to invest collectively to address challenges (including risks such as addressing national biosecurity issues) and opportunities for the benefit of the industry.
While the organisation encourages individuals to undertake their own research to gain a competitive advantage, this is not what avocado levies are for.
It said levies are for broad industry benefit, such as research and development that improves the quality of avocados available to consumers, helps to build demand as satisfied consumers return to buy more.
“If someone wants to develop something like a new product or a new variety that they will own that they can commercialise themselves and capture the benefit themselves, go for it, great, however that’s not what levies are for,” Mr Tyas said.
Avocados Australia has grower-directors representing each of the major production regions. Two out of 10 of these are based in south-west WA.
“Last year Avocados Australia ran a Western Australia R&D Workshop in Manjimup specifically for Western Australian growers to identify their research and development priorities,” Mr Tyas said.
“As a result of this workshop WA growers identified their top research and development priorities, in particular, irregular bearing and quality improvement through the supply chain.”
Irregular bearing and quality improvement through the supply chain are two issues currently being thoroughly addressed through the avocado levy program.
A new levy-funded extension project will start later this year addressing the problem of irregular bearing including the use of workshops and field trials.
Further research into pollination and carbohydrate management will be commissioned soon as part of a recently developed Productivity Research and Development Strategy.
In 2012/13 Australian avocado growers, combined, produced 54,877 tonnes of avocados worth an estimated gross value of production of $306 million.
