Hass avocados from Ecuador will soon arrive in Spain for the first time, opening up a key European market for the small exporting country.

A 20,000-kilo shipment will be exported from Terminal Portuario Guayaquil, in a container that was packed in Mira, Carchi, El Universo reports.

Mira Fruit, the company born from the merger of the Spanish firms Ecolijar Group and Sherry Quality, built a plant this year for the collection, classification and packaging of avocados among other fruits. 

Andrés Reina, administrator of Mira Fruit, said that the avocado to be exported was harvested by various producers from the towns Carchi, Imbabura and Pichincha, which are located in the north of the country near the border with Colombia. 

Mira Fruit’s plan is to send five containers between November and December this year. After Spain, the next shipments are set to go to Holland and Russia.

As worldwide demand grows, the Ministry of Agriculture in Ecuador has identified the Hass avocado as one of the non-traditional products with high export potential.

Since October of this year, over 600 kilos of avocados have been approved for export from Ecuador, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture.

Reina said that Mira Fruit intends to carry out shipping tests for the traditional avocado variety consumed in Ecuador, which is larger. “We have been waiting since January to make the first test shipments,” he was quoted saying.

Despite the pandemic and the changes that it has generated in some markets, there are companies that have managed to successfully introduce their products to new places.

Lanonexport, for example, exported green bananas for the first time to the United States.