Jess the avocado-eating dog has been feasting on the wind-felled fruit from her owner's orchard her entire life and her vet has never seen such a shiny coat on such an old dog.
So why aren't people allowed to eat them?
That is a question bothering Katikati avocado grower Kim Crocker, who has been forced to dispose of 20,000 "perfectly edible" avocados that were blown to the ground during recent strong gales.
With an ever-increasing demand for the fruit (or berry, as they are botanically classified), a supply shortage and reports of avos selling for up to $7.49 each this month, Crocker is troubled by what he sees as an immense waste when he, his family, friends - and dogs - have been eating and enjoying these avocados for many years.
What irks him most is that there are so few avocados being sold in New Zealand at the moment despite what he sees as a plentiful supply.
The supermarket shelves are often empty and when they are in stock they can sell for upwards of $6 each.
This relates to the "dry matter" requirement avocados legally need to meet before they can be sold. This refers to the maturity of the fruit, in particular the oil content they contain that gives the optimal avocado its distinctive nutty flavour and creamy texture. Avocados with a lower dry matter have more water content and less flavour.
With New Zealand currently early in its avocado season, most of the available fruit has not yet reached the required dry matter content of 23 per cent. Crocker said his fruit were currently averaging about 21 per cent which, in his view, made them perfectly edible, if not quite as delectable as a fully ripe fruit. In other parts of the world, including Australia and Europe, 21 per cent is the threshold.
"There's often none on the supermarket shelves. Or I can go into supermarkets here in Katikati or Tauranga and they're either going for something like $6 each," he said.
"We're not even giving the public the choice of deciding for themselves whether or not they want to buy a slightly more watery avocado."
When severe gales in the region in the past month or so blew some five tonnes of avocados from Crocker's trees and onto the ground, health and safety regulations also prevented their sale.
"My problem is I think they're edible and I'd even just give them away. We could just give them to charity ... even if we just gave them to the poor," he said.
As it was, he'd had no choice but to feed the avocados to pigs or else just mow them into the grass around his trees.
Avacadogs: Jess, right, and Charlie have been eating wind-felled avocados their whole lives and are the epitome of health, so why can't people eat them? Photo / Supplied
"I've been growing avocados for 13 years and when we're walking around the orchard we don't pick the ones off the trees we pick them up off the ground and that's what we [the growers] eat. I'm sure if you asked any other grower they'd tell you the same thing."
In fact, he said, windfall avocados tended to ripen better than those that were plucked from the trees.
His dogs, who weren't particularly bothered by dry matter content, also loved avocados and tended to eat at least one a day each.
When his elderly pooch Jess, 14, was taken to the vet this week Crocker was told they had never seen such an old Airedale terrier in such good condition and with such a beautiful shiny coat. Despite not being very well at the moment, Jess has far exceeded the life expectancy of this breed of dog and Crocker was sure her avocado diet had a lot to do with it.
Jess's protege, 2-year-old Charlie, also an Airedale, loves avos, too, and a video Crocker sent to the Herald shows him devouring a plate of the fruit with gusto, and licking it clean to get every last scrap.
"Our Charlie ... likes eating avocados. For some reason unbeknown to us he only eats one or two a day," Crocker said.
"[Usually] they just munch them off the ground, it doesn't matter how watery they are."
What further bothered him was a recent change in recommendations by Avocado New Zealand which has raised the standard that avocados should meet in order to be sold locally so as to bring them more in line with the higher export standards.
While these recommendations were not binding, some stockists would only accept avos which met them, Crocker said.
This was to the detriment of many local growers, particularly smaller growers, who were having trouble meeting the new threshold so early in the season, and also to the New Zealand consumer.
"They're (Avocado New Zealand) looking at everything from an exporter perspective rather than what's in the best interest of growers and local consumers," he said.
Charlie licking his chops after a devouring a plate of avocado. Photo / Kim Crocker
Avocado New Zealand chief executive Jen Scouar acknowledged that the exported fruit generally derived more value but work was also being done to focus on the New Zealand market.
The organisation's marketing manager, Bevan Jelley, said the purpose of the new standards was to bring more consistent quality levels to New Zealand consumers.
"I think that the people that supply in the early part of the season are happy that their fruit outcome is being assured," he said.
There was a very good reason the dry matter threshold was set as it was, he said.
"Fruit that is below that level may never ripened ... because it has been harvested below that minimum level of dry matter.'
It was different in places like Australia due to its climactic conditions, he said.
The number of avocados that were exported and those that were sold locally varied depending on supply.
"Sometimes it's close to 50-50. Other seasons it may be more like 20 per cent sold locally 80 per cent sold to export. Generally in a season where there is more volume overall, more fruit will be sold for export. When there is less fruit, like this season ... the percentage on the New Zealand market increases."
As far as wind-fallen fruit was concerned, Scouar added that this posed a health and safety risk and shops, consumers or charities would not want avocados that had been picked up off the ground.
She said the nature of the avocado tree's fruit-bearing cycle meant there were inevitably going to be shortages some years.
"It's a supply and a demand thing and if you look globally there is actually a huge increase in demand for avocados and there is a huge shortage," she said.
Supermarket chain Foodstuffs, which owns a large share of New Zealand's grocery stores including Four Square, New World and Pak'nSave, said in a statement that the majority of its avocados did fall under the new recommendations.
"From time to time, however, individual owner-operators will purchase top-up stock directly from local growers which may or may not come under the new recommendations. As always, our focus is on making sure that we have a good supply of quality fruit that meets our customers' expectations around freshness and value."
Crocker said that at the very least, there should be tests conducted to assess whether there was any real detriment - medical or otherwise - to having a 21 per cent rather than a 23 per cent dry matter avocado.
* According to online veterinary sources, avocados can be harmful to some dogs so beware before following Jess and Charlie's lead.
