‘Extremely sad’: Thousands of avocados dumped in Manjimup as bumper season bites

A shocking photo has emerged showing thousands of avocados rotting at the tip in the South West’s premier food bowl region, with growers warning it is “just the beginning” in a “perfect storm” of a year. What could have been the region’s most lucrative season yet with trees fruiting heavily for a bumper crop, it is quickly descending into crisis. Plagued by labour shortages off the back of the pandemic, there are not enough workers to pick the fruit, leading to “unnecessary waste” just weeks into the season. The oversupply is driving the quality specs so high that much of the fruit which in previous years would have been snapped up by people at the supermarket, are not even making it onto shelves. What last year was considered a minor blemish, is now not good enough to make it out of the packhouse. While it is unknown which grower or pack house dumped the fruit in the image, Manjimup avocado grower Vic Grozotis warned it was “just the beginning”. “My concern is look at the size of that and we’re only 3 weeks into the season,” he said. “How high is that pile going to grow, I don’t know.” Looking at the image, Mr Grozotis believed the avocados would have been Grade 2 in a normal year. However, he said because there was such an oversupply, “everyone chases the highest quality cosmetic product” and small blemishes which would have been fine last year now did not make the cut. It also means prices have plummeted. “Perth consumers are enjoying the cheapest avocados they’ve ever seen,” Mr Grozotis said. “Compared to last year where it was $50 for a 5.5kg tray, now it’s $18.” Mr Grozotis said there was a solution to the problem, and it lied with major supermarket chains Coles and ALDI’s Queensland and northern NSW stores, which he said imported almost 100 per cent of their avocados from New Zealand. “100,000 5.5kg trays get imported to Australia every week all from New Zealand... and that occurs mainly in NSW and QLD,” he said. “This represents currently 20% of all avocados sold in Australia. “While I appreciate they have a contractual agreement... what they’ve failed to do is listen to their supply partners and industry partners who have told them that we have plenty here. “If we could stop the New Zealand imports, 1.7million trays could be sold from the Manjimup and Pemberton area. “That is the 28 40ft containers leaving Manjimup every week.” Mr Grozotis said not only did WA have plenty of produce, but it did not have to go through the additional fumigation process imported fruit had to. “Anything they bring in has to be fumigated with a product called methyl bromide and each time compromises the quality of the fruit,” he said. “Why go through this when you can offer them a clean, green quality product from WA?” He said if the Queensland supermarket branches took WA fruit instead, it would not only stop the wastage of fruit, but labour, electricity, fertiliser and agricultural chemicals. Save Our Donnelly River former president and current secretary Anton Troy was not prepared for the reaction the photo would get when he shared it on Facebook. Within hours, hundreds of people had shared and commented expressing their dismay.