Handling guide for avocado fruit
Written by Tuan Minh NGUYEN, PhD
Dept. of Post-harvest Technology and Processing,
Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute- FAVRI
JAF Awardee Research Project funded by the ACIAR
Maturities:
- Harvest window from July to August. Fruit can be hanged on tree for 1 month.
- Do not pick immaturity fruit. Picking fruit when fruit skin colour turns from dark green to light green, glossiness reduces, lenticels become prominent, dry matter reaches 16-17%, fruit stem turns into brown. Fruit flesh turns from white to pale yellow.
Time of harvest:
- Harvest fruit when the weather is cool and dry, in the morning or late afternoon to avoid fog and hot sun direction.
Harvesting method:
- Harvesting tools and plastic baskets are washed with chlorine of 200 ppm antiseptic before use and let dry. Harvesting tool mounted with a sharp knife and 20-25 cm diameter bags. Avoid fruit drop. Do not use hand pick fruit.
- Cut the fruit stem about 4-5 mm. Fruit are placed carefully into plastic crates.
- Boxes with fruits are place into the shade of the tree.
Handlings:
- Fruit are transferred to the packing-shed, remove diseased fruit, misshaped fruit and fruit with stem loss and dropped fruit and soft fruit.
- Fruit are washed with 200 ppm chlorine solution for 1 minute, then dipped in Carbendazim 0.1% for 30 seconds.
- Fruit are labeled and packed into 1 kg bag convenience if required.
Packing:
- Using a square plastic crates (40x40x50cm) with a lid. Use carton layers lining all the sides of the crate. Place each fruit gently into the crate. Use foams or shredded newspaper to reduce vibration between fruit. Avoid sunlight, heat accumulation during transport.
Storage:
- Store fruit at cool and dry place. If possible, store at 7-8 °C and 85-95% RH for 2 weeks, after storage should be kept at 20-25 °C for ripening.
- Ripen fruit should be stored at 5 °C.
- Ripen fruit can be assessed based on the color changes and fruit softness.
Ripening:
- Fruit should be ripened at retailer or packer markets. Fruit let ripened at room temperature, can be placed with ripening bananas.
- Fruit can be gassed with 10 ppm ethylene for 48 h at 20 °C; or at 100 ppm ethylene concentrations in 24h.