Like so many groups that www.freshfruitportal.com came into contact with during the Produce Marketing Association's (PMA) Fresh Summit in Anaheim, Mission Produce exemplifies the multifaceted and global nature of the produce industry in arguably one of its hottest crops, avocados. To complement partners in South America to supply northern markets, the company is on the hunt for new growing regions and plans to double exports to China next year.

Mission's vice president of sales Ron Araiza said supply was later than normal for the incoming Chilean and Mexican avocado deals, but that would have no bearing on total volume. In fact, he expected the southern neighbor's crop to be up 10%.

Ron Araiza

The Chilean export season is usually in full swing around the time of the PMA Fresh Summit, but a mixture of factors meant fewer avocados were arriving from the South American country, including drought, strong domestic demand and opportunities in Europe.

"As the year progresses as we get into the winter months in California, there will be volume entering the U.S. market, especially to help us with demand for the Super Bowl, which is in January," said Araiza, whose company owns 50% of its Chilean grower-partner Cabilfrut.

"December's usually a good month but it's just later than it has been for volume coming to the U.S., but we will eventually begin to see much more volume out of Chile; 4-5 million pounds a week is what we're anticipating.

He said some Chilean avocados had arrived in the United States at the time, but his company had not yet received any.

The lack of water has led to forecasts that sizing will be a bit smaller. However, Araiza emphasized that Cabilfrut's strategy to shift some of its production further south and closer to water sources was a positive one.

"We do rely on Cabilfrut for the exports down in Chile, and that's what they strategically believe in for the future in Chile and the future of the avocado industry there.

He said Mexico was in for a big crop of 1.3-1.5 billion pounds depending on the forecast.

"Their maturity of the fruit in October is a bit behind what we saw last year, but they'll pick up the pace," he said.

The topic of 'blood avocados' - which has caught the attention of the mainstream press and prompted a firm response from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto - is one that Mission Produce has been watching but Araiza said it had not affected production.

"No one turns a blind eye to that. That's for sure. We're very careful in how we do business in Mexico of course for the safety of all our employees, but it's certainly a factor out there that we all have to be cognizant of," he said.

He said the company's security measures in Mexican fields and packhouses had increased in recent years, and this was a trend seen with most avocado firms in the region.

Across the Pacific

One prospective export destination the avocado industries of Mexico and Chile have in common is China. The former has a small but established presence there, particularly with foodservice operators, while it is understood that Chile sent its first avocado shipments to the market recently.

Mission Produce launched a pilot program for Mexican avocados in China last season.

"We see a huge growth spurt coming on in China – we’re currently marketing fruit into mainland China, but our primary source currently is Mexico," Araiza said.

"With Chile and Peru in the future, we look to be viable sources this time of year in to China, and that's due to this being a rainy season in Mexico, and so with long voyages you could encounter quality issues from Mexico.

"The growth in China is due to young individuals seeing the health messages, and the educational process is underway there. They understand the need to get ripe fruit into the wet markets. for our volumes into China to double this coming year."

He added the pilot program was very successful, with avocados sold in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing, as well as a little bit of fruit in Nanning.

From California to Peru and further afield

To deal with growing demand at home, Europe, China and elsewhere, the company is constructing a sizable packing facility in Oxnard, California and an even larger one in Peru.

"The newest thing for Mission of course is our new packing facility that we’re building in Oxnard. It will be the largest avocado packing facility in the world, until we’re finished with Peru which will be even larger than that," Araiza said.

"In Peru they just broke ground and that facility should be finished up in April of 2015...we'll then be able to pack our own fruit and ship our own fruit from Peru," he said, adding the Peruvian site would cover around 300,000 square feet.

He said the company sourced from 2,000 of its own planted hectares in Peru that began producing fruit this year, while it also sourced avocados from its partner Camposol.

"This year in Peru we see that they'll be bringing into the U.S. alone anywhere from 240-260 million pounds during the summer months, and that'll help us with our California supply and fit in nicely with the transition from the old crop in Mexico to the 'Flora Loca' crop in Mexico.

"Those are the months with the highest demand level here in the United States; we also look for markets in Europe to help us with that production out of Peru, so we look for similar volumes to go into Europe next year from Peru."

When asked about the recent Hass avocado boom occurring in Colombia, which has attracted interest from the likes of Westfalia and supposedly Calavo Growers (NASDAQ: CVGW) as well, Araiza said Mission's sourcing department had visited the country and others to investigate future supply possibilities.

"We don't exclude any growing areas in the world. We're currently looking at South Africa because we now are marketing fruit throughout Europe, Asia and of course the U.S.," he said.

"We are also in Colombia, looking at Colombia as a source, but again we're not just there...[it could be] Brazil in the future as well."

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