AVOCADOS
Hass and Shepard. 120+ grower partners. Export programs into seven Asian and Middle Eastern markets. The avocado category has been at the centre of what we do since 2012, and the discipline we've built around it shows in the programs we run today.
Hass and Shepard
Hass and Shepard are the two varieties we work with. They are different fruit that serve different market windows and customer needs, and managing the transition between them in domestic retail programs, export allocations, and grower supply is one of the most commercially consequential things we do each season.
Hass is the primary export variety. Dense, buttery, with the skin-colour change that gives importers and retailers a visible ripeness cue. Our export dry matter standard is 23% minimum, above the general industry floor, because fruit that arrives at 21% dry matter doesn't deliver the eating quality that builds repeat purchase in premium Asian retail.
Shepard is the counter-seasonal opportunity. It ships when the domestic market is softest, it holds well in sea freight, and in markets like Hong Kong, where consumer education has been built carefully over several seasons, it has commanded strong retail pricing and generated genuine off-take. The key is destination discipline: Shepard that ends up in the wrong channel at the wrong time destroys the price point for everyone shipping into that market.
23% Dry Matter. Every Export Order.
Not an aspiration. The minimum spec for any consignment leaving under The Avolution name. Fruit that meets this standard arrives at eating quality. Fruit that doesn't, doesn't ship.
120+ Growers. Multiple Regions. One Standard.
From Mareeba in Far North Queensland to Pemberton in Western Australia and Robinvale in Victoria. The grower map on this page shows the breadth. What it doesn't show is that every grower in that network supplies to the same quality specifications regardless of the region, the season, or the customer at the other end.
Growers in Every Region
Security of supply isn't a marketing claim; it's a network design. With growers across North Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia, we always have more than one region in active production. When a weather event hits one region, supply from another fills the gap. That's not luck. That's the point of building the network this way.
MEET THE GROWERS
We started with 2 growers in 2012. Now we partner with 120+ across Australia's key avocado growing regions. From Mareeba to Pemberton, every grower in our network is in a direct return-to-grower relationship. They see the price their fruit achieved. They see every cost between orchard and customer. And they receive payment promptly, not when we feel like it, and not averaged out across a pool that obscures what their fruit actually earned. That model has built something genuine: growers who stay. Relationships that run for seasons, not shipments. And supply continuity that buyers can count on.
MANAGING AVOCADO QUALITY
Quality is decided at every step between the orchard and the customer. Here is how we manage each one.
Stage 1: Picking the Best Fruit
Avocados are picked at dry matter, not by calendar date. Our growers test fruit before harvest: the minimum 23% dry matter standard for export is a checkpoint that happens at the orchard, not at the packing shed. Fruit that isn't ready doesn't get picked. It's that straightforward.
Stage 2: The Right Packaging
Boxes, trays, cartons, net bags: the full range of pack formats, sized for different retail and foodservice requirements. Export consignments are packed to the customer's specification: count sizes, weight specs, labelling, and consumer packaging where required.
Stage 3: Transport
Temperature managed transport from packing shed to port. Reefer containers for sea freight, dedicated cold storage for air freight. Transit times are tracked. Eating quality at destination is a direct function of time and temperature between harvest and arrival.
Stage 4: Storage and Ripening
For domestic retail programs, ripening is managed to the customer's specification: retail-ready, partially ripe, or hard green depending on the buying schedule and store replenishment cycle. For export, fruit is shipped hard green in most cases, with cold chain maintained to destination. The ripening protocol is documented and consistent: what a customer receives in week one of a program is what they receive in week twenty.
Stage 5: Total Support
When something goes wrong, a quality claim at destination, a freight delay, a specification discrepancy, The Avolution manages it. Not the grower. Not the customer in isolation. We're the party in the supply chain with visibility of both ends, and we take responsibility for the gap between them. That's what a program relationship means in practice.
PACKAGING
Boxes, trays, cartons, net bags, consumer prepacks. Every format the retail, wholesale, foodservice, and export market requires. Packaging is specified at the program level, not chosen from a catalogue after the fruit is picked.
ACCREDITATIONS
HARPS and Fresh Care certification are maintained across all supply programs as a baseline operating requirement. These are the access conditions for major domestic retail programs. Not a differentiating claim, but a non-negotiable standard.
Where Our Avocados Go
Domestic retail programs run year-round into major Australian supermarket chains, independent retailers, wholesale operators, and foodservice distributors. Export programs operate into seven markets: Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, India, and the Middle East. Each market is served through a programmatic supply relationship: forward-allocated, specification-agreed, and managed through the full cold chain to destination. We don't ship spot fruit into export markets. We build programs and we hold them. If you're an import buyer, distributor, or retail category manager in any of these markets and you want to talk about 2026/27 programs, contact our export team: exports@theavolution.com.au
Find out more about how a partnership with The Avolution can help grow your business.