Shipments of New Zealand avocados to South Korea have reached an industry high with 209,000 trays planned for export this season, says avocado exporter AVOCO.
Worth about $6 million to the total industry, the 2016 Korean exports are three times the volume exported last year.
The greater volume reflects the industry's larger national crop in 2016-17. However, Carwyn Williams, Southeast Asian market manager for AVOCO's AVANZA brand, says the growth reflects the efforts put in to promote New Zealand avocados in Asia.
New Zealand exporters are now also beginning to benefit from the Free Trade Agreement ratified with Korea in September last year, which saw the 30 per cent tariff on New Zealand avocados drop to 24 per cent in January 2016. The tariff drops annually and will be eliminated in 2024.
After a short crop of 2.5 million trays last season, the New Zealand industry is expecting to export a total of about 5.1 million trays in 2016-17, exceeding the previous record of 4.5 million trays two years ago.