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AVOCADO
Demand for NZ-grown avocados The team at JP Exports has been preparing during the past few months for the coming avocado season.
Your CROP will travel to markets all over the world
Procurement managers Glyn Williams in the Bay of Plenty and Chris Frost in Northland have been busy advising and assisting growers. As part of those preparations, avocado trader Darren Hughes has just returned from visiting JP Export customers in Thailand, Malaysia and Korea. He saw avocados from Kenya, Mexico, Peru and Australia in the markets. Darren says the trip was timely and insightful. He visited wholesale markets, a wide range of supermarkets, and independent
JP Exports avocado tastings at the markets in Asia. stores in each country. Darren felt the markets were quiet with the only product really selling in volume were USA cherries, which were being heavily promoted in all stores, in all countries he visited.
“Our customers are looking forward to the arrival of our New Zealand avocados,” he says. JP Exports will follow on from last season with promotions in Thailand and Malaysia, using the AIC Contestable Funding and PGP Funding to help customers promote our growers’ avocados. “We will keep the focus on the taste and quality of the New Zealand avocado, reaching new consumers and reminding consumers who already know our avocados that they are healthy and great to eat. “Our customers understand that the New Zealand avocado supply will be down in volume this year and that prices will be firm, ho ever their demand for our growers’ avocados is strong.”
Research shows avocados may help gut health We look after our growers avocados from the orchard to the worldwide markets
Chris Frost
Chris Frost Northland - 021 981 384 Northland - 021 981 384
GLYN WILLIAMS
GLYN WILLIAMS BOP, Coromandel, East Coast - 021 276 6081 BOP, Coromandel, East Coast - 021 276 6081
New research shows avocados may be good for gut health, which would be another previously unknown benefit Scientist Gunaranjan Paturi says avocados contain compounds that are already known to support cardiovascular health, blood glucose regulation and have anti-infla matory effects. As avocados are high in ‘good fats’ and dietary fibre, Plant & Food Research’s Dr Paturi and colleagues Dr Christine Butts and Dr Kerry Bentley-Hewitt decided to see what impact they might have on gut health. Their study, funded as part of MBIE’s Food for Health programme and published in Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, is the first to examine the direct effect of avocados on gut health. Macronutrients in food such as dietary fibre are known to alter gut microbiota composition and metabolic activity, so the team fed rats different diets that included 5, 10 or 15 per cent avocado for six weeks. Gunaranjan says they were surprised to find the av cado had no noticeable effect on bacterial populations in the rats’ guts compared with the control. But their study did find other beneficial health effect The gut bacteria metabolised the dietary fibre in the avocado to produce short-chain fatty acids as a result
of fermentation. SCFAs are associated with a number of health benefits including the stimulation of cells to produce antimicrobial peptides called defensins, which play an important role in immune protection. The research showed higher concentrations of defensins in the gut tissues of the avocado-fed rats. This is not solid proof of beneficial activity in the body itself but higher levels are probably better for gut health. Another change to the gut lining has more straightforward benefits. SCFAs are also the fuel for goblet cells. Goblet cells produce mucus in a healthy gut that protect gut tissue. The team found significantly more goblet cells in the gut wall in rats on the 15 per cent avocado diet. Gunaranjan says this finding implies avocado also positively influences gu mucus secretion. As this trial was working with a known safe and beneficial food, Gunaranjan says the next step could be a move straight into testing with humans. “This is exciting research,” says New Zealand Avocado chief executive Jen Scoular. “It potentially opens the door to a whole new area of benefit we hadn’t seen before. “It would be great to see this research followed up to find out if it translates into real benefits for huma gut health.”