The Malaga cooperative Trops, the main national trader and exporter of subtropical fruits, has completed the first shipment of Spanish avocado Hass variety to the US market.

The cooperative, based in Vélez-Málaga, has explained in a statement that the shipment has as port of destination New York and that the expected arrival date of the cargo – a container with 20,000 kilos – is March 10.

Trops has described “very positive progress” in its strategy to diversify the sale of its production on be in “a market as demanding” as the North American.

According to the marketer, in the United States there is an avocado consumption of three kilos per head, compared to the 1.2 that are consumed in the European Union, and “it is a recognized market for the value it gives to the avocado.

“Throps began the efforts to export to the United States in 1998, during the celebration of the III World Avocado Congress, held in Michoacán (Mexico), Taking advantage of the fact that the Mexican market had opened the Mexican avocado the previous year.

In January 2014, the United States definitively approved the entry of Spanish avocado from the peninsular territory, a decision that was made following the proposal made a year earlier by the Animal and Plant Health Service (APHIS), US phytosanitary authority.

After authorization, it was necessary to obtain a series of certifications in the production facilities and warehouses, and in the case of Trops, it was in 2015 when it was submitted for inspection.

US agency and the Ministry of Agriculture of Spain. According to the exporter, this first shipment of avocado to the United States is a sample “of the maturity” of the cooperative, Spanish leader in commercialization, to agglutinate the production of 2,600 farmers, most of them they from the Malaga region of the Axarquía and the Costa Tropical of Granada.

Source: EFE