Avocado Crisis in New Zealand - Theft and Waiting Lists
Everybody wants avocados: The booming demand for the green superfruit is posing growing problems for producers and consumers in New Zealand. Police are reporting more and more cases of avocado theft and in some nurseries there are waiting lists for avocado trees, according to New Zealand media.
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Because the harvest was poor and the fruit is also in demand out of season, prices in New Zealand rose to five dollars (just under 3 euros) per piece. In recent weeks, police have also reported a wave of thefts in the Bay of Plenty growing region on the North Island, some of them in broad daylight. A perpetrator even rolled to the scene in an electric car.
The high prices encourage many New Zealanders to plant their own avocado trees. "Who wouldn't want an avocado tree in the garden carrying 500 avocados," said Stephen Wade of the Lynwood Nursery of the German Press Agency. But supplies are also becoming scarce in the tree nurseries. Although he has increased his production by 500 percent to 150,000 trees, there are waiting lists in some stores, Wade said.
While five years ago there were only 30,000 new trees on the market, this year there were 200,000, said Jen Scoular from the New Zealand Avocado Association.
The warm climate of New Zealand's North Island is very good for the avocados originally from Mexico. The avocado industry of the Pacific state generates sales of about 150 million New Zealand dollars (87 million euros), more than two thirds of which from exports./jks/DP/jha (dpa)
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