The Avozilla is back and bigger than ever.
The massive-sized avocados are hitting shelves again at UK retailer Tesco, with the promise that they will be up to 50% larger than last season’s crop.
Buoyed by a brilliant harvest in South Africa, these giant fruits are weighing in at an average of 1.5 kilos. Given the buzz they generated last year, the supermarket expects returns to be very good in 2020 as well.
The Avozillas available this year have an average length of nine inches and circumference of four and a half to five inches.
Previous ones had an average length of seven inches and a circumference of three and a half to four inches.
Boxford Farms growing: Award-winning fruit growers Boxford (Suffolk) Farms Ltd have acquired Wallings Nursery Ltd. The 82-year-old family business also owns its own packing and marketing subsidiary Peake Fruit, from where Wallings fruit is packed and distributed.
Wallings, established in 1999, produces glasshouse strawberries exclusively for Sainsburys, via Berry Gardens, and has itself won awards for growing and innovation.
“The combination of the two neighbouring businesses takes Boxford Farming to over 6 hectares of glasshouse production, with planning permission for a further 2 hectares,”Robert Rendall, Group Director said. “This is in addition to our tunnelled soft fruit and netted orchard fruit crops. We are so excited about the future growth opportunities that this opens up for both businesses through combined projects.”
Boxford Suffolk Farms also grows apples, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, asparagus and rhubarb, and plans to increase production volumes of all of them to meet growing demand.
South Africa suspended some citrus to EU: South Africa will soon suspend exports of some types of citrus from certain regions to the European Union for the rest of the season, according to Fresh Fruit Portal. The measure, which will come into effect from Sept. 12, is being taken to limit the number of detections of citrus black spot (CBS) and false codling moth in European ports.
The South African Government has been asked to stop carrying out inspections for affected citrus shipments, apart from those originating from the CBS free areas of the Western and Northern Cape the Gamtoos and Katriver production regions in the Eastern Cape. Mandarins and other soft citrus are also exempted.
A statement said that the South African citrus industry has in previous years voluntarily suspended certain exports to limit potential interceptions of citrus black spot (CBS) symptomatic fruit at the tail end of the season to protect the long term sustainability of the EU market. “Experience has shown that the prevalence of CBS interceptions increases in this period, particularly on late Valencia oranges,” it said
