Worldwide Fruit,

Apple Way,
Wardentree Lane,
Pinchbeck,
Spalding
PE11 3BB

27 October 2023

Dear Supplier,

I know the Peru 2023 avocado season has been a challenge from a quality management perspective
compared to the previous year. I just wanted to say thank you very much for your hard work. I also
wanted to share some of our learnings at Worldwide Fruit to see if this can support quality
improvement in the coming season.

We saw two main quality challenges this season:

1. Black skin marking

2. Internal discolouration/grey

We sent several batches of skin marked Hass avocados for laboratory analysis from different regions,
with the aim to determine the reason for the black marking.

The laboratory report showed that where the skin/lenticel cells were damaged from the weather or
picking/packing, the bacteria and fungus has developed and grown. The has worsened overtime and
in transit/ripening.
The laboratory has expressed recommendations on hygiene for all suppliers to keep everything as
clean as possible to minimise bacteria entering the fruit through the damaged lenticels.

The lenticel damage only needs to be relatively small and probably won’t be able to be seen at
source, for the issue to develop and worsen over the time.

At Worldwide Fruit we have also looked at supplier post-harvest treatments and compared this to
the black skin marking seen. Where suppliers have used the post-harvest product Thiabendazole,
fruit showed a lower incidence of black skin marking. This is because it has helped reduce the fungus
from growing.

It’s important to note that we are not giving agronomic or crop protection advice, but suppliers
should consider all pre and post-harvest treatment options.

Please also check the approval and MRLs are in line with relevant legislation.

If you would like more information or would like to run a trial with your fruit next season, we are
happy to help.

Other learnings noted from this season:

• Suppliers that have also shipped at slightly warmer temperatures 7 to 7.5 degrees Celsius
with dry matters at 21.5 to 24 have also seen less issues.

• We have found that fruit from the Motupe valley in Peru in particular developed internal
grey and had a lower shelf life.

Generally, all avocados this season have had a lower shelf life, so we really appreciate if you can keep
to the specifications attached to this email especially for harvest dates and dwell time at origin. We
will aim to use fruit in the optimum rotation.

Also when looking at shipping lines from Peru the service offered by Seatrade appeared best due to
fasted transit times and direct delivery into Dover. Maersk was generally least reliable and often
experienced most delays.
We have made these observations and hope they may help to form an improvement plan for next
season.

If you would like any further information or to talk it through please let me know,

Kind regards

Avocado Worldwide fruit team