The three leading avocado-exporting nations of Latin America have upped the ante in their China-bound shipments, with figures for 2015 showing a sharp spike in exports.

Mexico led the pack by far, more than tripling its volume to reach 12,646 metric tons (MT) in the season to November, which is more impressive still compared to the mere 172MT shipped in 2012.

While Chile's exports to China are much smaller in comparison, the percentage change is 128 times the 2014 number at 2,715MT, driven by the removal of cold treatment requirements and tariffs.

Peru's volumes were smaller still in the season to October, but were still significantly higher than at any previous point in time at 59.3MT; in the previous year they were just 24kg, and in 2013 they stood at 21.2MT.

These statistics come from SIAVI (Mexico), Promperu (Peru) and Odepa (Chile).

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