Beginning in 2019, this project is monitoring avocado fruit quality in retail stores across the country and providing detailed, timely feedback to specific packhouses and the industry as a whole. Fruit quality has been identified as a challenge for the avocado industry, with surveys of fruit quality in recent years finding that up to a quarter of avocados in stores have significant levels of bruising, internal rot or other disorders.

The project team is conducting regular assessments at supermarkets, independent and specialty retailers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide over three years – providing some 600 separate quality assessments each year. Information is being recorded on factors such as quality of store displays, fruit age, pricing and potentially the difference in fruit quality between displays in the back and front of stores.

Passing quality information on specific batches of fruit to packhouses is intended to help businesses identify improvement opportunities and help address any inefficiencies or issues in their operations. De-identified data from the sampling is also being analysed to monitor industry performance on the whole.