Avocadoes takes the spotlight at the Allesbeste Symposium
A highlight on the calendar of every role player in the avocadoindustry is the Allesbeste Symposium with more than 350 people from across the globe attending this year’s edition presented at Merensky Agricultural Academy recently.
On Wednesday, the first day of the symposium the focus was on panel discussions and presentations by some of the leaders in the industry. Edrean Ernst from Allesbeste and Jandré Killian from RIC led the first session discussing technology, benchmarks and measurement. “Data that are fragmented across different farming support systems can be pulled together to be displayed on meaningful dashboards. Allesbeste accomplishes this through their farm management system, called Root, as well as the Qlik Business Intelligence platform, supported by RIC Consulting. ”, Edrean mentioned.
Donovan Lewis, marketing manager for Allesbeste, Jorge Garcia and Lianne Jones from It’s Fresh discussed marketing and logistics and strategically marketing new cultivars and Maluma-avocados in the current market. “What is the one problem to solve? Good quality arrivals are not just about landing hard fruit at destination, but landing quality fruit that is able to ripen full of flavour and give consumers an excellent eating experience” said Donovan Lewis, they had a 100% successful arrival rate for this season and fruit they handle comprises of more than 50% being Maluma exported.
Also read: Mahlatse hopes to help young farmers
Dr Christo Malan from the University of Stellenbosch, Hantie Muller from Agrilibruim and Dr Steve Oosthuyse from HortResearch SA discussed orchard practices and nutrition and shared some of their research findings. Malan spoke about efficient nutrient utilization and ion charge management in orchards. Muller, who visits growers regularly shared her insights on some general mistakes growers make in young orchards and when in production. Zander Ernst from Allesbeste gave feedback on their trellising and ultra-high-density experiments using the Maluma variety in Tatura and vertical trellis systems.
He says that in terms of production so far, the Tatura system has proven more successful while vertical systems are easier to manage. Zander led panel discussions after the presentations. Zander, Mary-Lu Arpaia from the University of California and Dr Guy Witney discussed avocado breeding and selection and shared their views and insights on the future of avocado varieties and where they believe the nextbig paradigm shift will lie with avocado varieties.
“As growers we need to understand that the market will only move on new cultivars if we actively plant them, and we need these genetics to improve our position in the market. Single cultivar production threatens long term sustainability and we have to believe actively that there is a world beyond that” The delegates of the Allesbeste Symposium saw the latest in orchard management tools demonstrated by Husqvarna and visited trellised orchards at Allesbeste on Thursday.
It gave the growers and attendees the opportunity to see how different varieties and rootstocks perform first hand. Zander led the tour, providing feedback on the experiments and giving insight on the lessons learnt on the farm.
