How we work
Choosing, developing, and stewarding the land
An avocado orchard is a decades-long commitment that begins with the ground and never really ends. Here is how we choose where to plant, how we develop and run the orchards, and how we keep the land producing over the long horizon.
One
How we choose land
We choose ground that can grow the crop before we plant a single tree. Avocado wants a particular altitude and a frost-free climate, deep soil that drains well, and a dependable water supply. We also weigh proximity to packing and export, because fruit has to move once it is picked. Miss on any one of these and the rest does not matter; we walk away from the ground.
Suitable land is scarce because the conditions rarely line up, and most of the ground where they do is already planted. Demand for the fruit keeps climbing. The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook projects world avocado production reaching about 12 million tonnes by 2030, more than three times its 2010 level, while the land that can grow it does not expand at anything like that pace. Getting the site right is the part of the job we spend the most time on.
Two
How we develop and operate
We raise our own trees in the nursery and take them from there to the planted block. The orchards are planted at modern high-density spacing, on clonal rootstock bred to tolerate root rot, with managed micro-irrigation that delivers measured water to each tree rather than flooding the rows.
Then the work is patience and attention. A grove sets its first commercial crop around the fourth year and approaches full bearing somewhere in the eight-to-twelve-year range, depending on the site and how it has been managed. We keep records of every block through all of it, so what each piece of ground is doing is written down rather than remembered.
Three
How we steward the land over decades
A well-built orchard produces for decades, and keeping it that way is ongoing work rather than a finished project. The soil is maintained so it keeps draining, the water is managed against the seasons and the dry years, and the canopy is pruned so the grove does not crowd itself. We work the orchards directly, walking the rows and tending the trees ourselves.
You plant an avocado tree and you live with that decision for a very long time. How well the land is run in those years is what decides whether the orchard is still producing decades on.
The next step
Request a briefing
An hour on the asset and how we farm it. Bring the questions you'd want answered before you back farmland.