Final Report Implementing Improvements in the Avocado Supply Chain John Tyas Avocados Australia Limited (AAL) Project Number: AV12013 AV12013 This project has been funded by Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited using the avocado industry levy and funds from the Australian Government. Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited (Hort Innovation) makes no representations and expressly disclaims all warranties (to the extent permitted by law) about the accuracy, completeness, or currency of information in Implementing Improvements in the Avocado Supply Chain. Reliance on any information provided by Hort Innovation is entirely at your own risk. Hort Innovation is not responsible for, and will not be liable for, any loss, damage, claim, expense, cost (including legal costs) or other liability arising in any way (including from Hort Innovation or any other person’s negligence or otherwise) from your use or non-use of Implementing Improvements in the Avocado Supply Chain, or from reliance on information contained in the material or that Hort Innovation provides to you by any other means. ISBN 0 7341 3728 1 Published and distributed by: Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited Level 8, 1 Chifley Square Sydney NSW 2000 Tel: (02) 8295 2300 Fax: (02) 8295 2399 © Copyright 2016 Contents Summary .................................................................................................................................... 3 Keywords .................................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 6 Outputs .................................................................................................................................... 10 Outcomes ................................................................................................................................. 11 Evaluation and Discussion .......................................................................................................... 12 Recommendations ..................................................................................................................... 17 Scientific Refereed Publications .................................................................................................. 18 IP/Commercialisation ................................................................................................................. 19 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 20 Appendices ............................................................................................................................... 21 2 Summary AV12013 is a continuation of projects AV08017: Avocado Supply Chain Education Materials and AV10006: Avocado Supply Chain Education Materials Phase II. The aim of AV12013 as with its precursors was to develop and refine educational materials and resources for the avocado industry to deliver a consistent, high quality product to its consumers. This aligns to one of the key aspirations listed in the Australian Avocado Industry Strategic Plan 2011-2016. Through past research industry has recognized that a wide variety of factors affect fruit quality, productivity and supply chain efficiency and that these factors are interrelated. Monitoring of avocados quality has been undertaken at retail level which has provided quantitative information about the quality of avocados purchased by consumers. The primary objective of AV12013 and its precursors was to gather research findings from the range of avocado quality improvement projects and compile them into easy to use reference materials for use by the different supply chain sectors. This project has built on past research with further production and promotion of the existing educational materials as well as designing and producing additional resources to support best practice through the supply chain. AV12013: Implementing Improvements in the Avocado Supply Chain has: Promoted new and existing supply chain education materials and programs. Developed and revised new and existing supply chain education materials as needed. Continued and expanded the retailer training program to educate retail staff on how best to handle and store avocados and thus improve or maintain fruit quality. Provided ongoing maintenance and promotion of the Best Practice Resource (BPR) which houses the latest best practice information for all supply chain sectors. Added new information to the BPR as it became available. 3 Keywords Avocado; avocado supply chain; educational materials; retailer training; retailer; Best Practice Resource; BPR; online information; bruising; body rots; retail recommendations; avocado handling; avocado storage; avocado quality; internal damage; avocado defects; consumer preference; Ripe and Ready; retail display; ripeness. 4 Introduction The Australian Avocado Industry Strategic Plan 2011 – 2016 lists one of its key aspirations as wanting to deliver to its customers a high quality product, consistently. This project and its precursors AV08017: Avocado Supply Chain Education Materials and AV10006: Avocado Supply Chain Education Materials Phase II, have formed a key part in contributing to this goal. Industry has recognized that a wide variety of factors affect fruit quality, productivity and supply chain efficiency and that these factors are interrelated. Industry set out to firstly identify what consumers wanted and preferred in relation to quality, where industry was positioned in relation to those preferences and where there was room for improvement. Consumer sensory research was completed under AV06025: Australian Consumer Perceptions and Preferences of Hass Avocado and AV07019: Survey of Australian Avocado Consumers. These projects determined quality levels which provide an acceptable consumption experience for consumers and hence do not negatively impact on future purchasing decisions. Results from this work in summary, indicated that consumers prefer Hass avocados of maturity equal to or higher than 22% dry matter (DM). It also found there is an increasing preference for Hass along the DM range from 22% through to 28%. In light of these results the industry endorsed that the Dry Matter Standard for Hass be changed from 21% to 23%. The results also indicated that consumers prefer to buy avocados at a level of ripeness that they can consume that evening and that the level of ripeness is in the range of medium ripe to soft ripe. Lastly, consumers indicated that any internal defects to more than 10% of the overall flesh at all price points would impact negatively on future purchase intent. Subsequent projects AV07018: Avocado Retail Quality Surveys and AV08034: Avocado Retail Quality Surveys Phase II, provided results which identified that there was still up to 30% of avocados at the retail level that had more than 10% internal flesh damage. AV11015: Avocado Industry Fruit Quality Benchmarking a continuation of AV07018 and AV08034, illustrated an improvement in internal flesh damage though continued to illustrate unsatisfactory levels of internal damage at retail level. Bruising and rots were identified as the biggest issues in terms of internal damage. Based on the initial findings, AV08017 was designed to assist in addressing quality issues including maturity, ripeness and internal damage. A significant focus was on reducing bruising damage at all points of the supply chain. These aims continued through into AV12013. Due to the impact on quality of handling throughout the supply chain, specific handling requirements were developed for each sector of the supply chain. A list of the documents developed can be seen in Appendix 1. There were four major focus points for AV12013 including revision of the education materials, promotion of these educational materials, retailer training and management of the BPR. These focus points are explained in more detail in the methodology section of this report. 5 Methodology There were four main components of this project which are described below: 1. Revision of the existing supply chain education materials to include new science and recommendations as needed for handling avocados to ensure the most up to date information was circulated. This involved: i. Taking recommendations from programs such as AV10019 Reducing Flesh Bruising and Skin Spotting in Hass Avocado which funded studies into how and where within the supply chain, avocados were most likely to bruise. The retail, wholesaler and packhouse handling guides were re-assessed and continue to provide relevant, up to date information. Recommendations from AV10019 has led to preliminary development of more tactile education tools to assist retailers in determining fruit ripeness and hence allowing them to confidently market fruit at different levels of ripeness to reduce consumer handling. Further research is required to develop these tools. ii. A Retailer Training manual was developed as an in-depth guide for handling avocados at the retail level. This was adapted from the Fresh Produce Retailing manual, originally developed by the Australian Horticultural Corporation. The Retailer Training manual was distributed to retailers through the retailer