HAB Sustainability Task Force
Early in the new year, the Hass Avocado Board added a Sustainability Task Force to its roster of standing and special committees. During the 5 year (2021-2025) strategic planning process in 2020 the Board of Directors changed the focus of our previous sustainability efforts to that of a more core value program that the Board, and the industry must embrace as we move into the future.
To that end, the overall strategy on sustainability for our sustainability priority is to “strengthen the Hass avocado industry by developing research and data to inform practices that will fulfill today’s needs without compromising those of future generations. We acknowledge that sustainability practices across the supply chain may vary either geographically, or culturally.”
As a part of our overall strategy, one of the five year working goals is to establish the Hass Avocado Sustainability Center, as the premier provider of research, data, and information for the avocado industry. This task force, filled with established business men and women from throughout our avocado supply chain will be tasked with these three objectives to meet our five year working goals:
- Define the structure of the Center, and that is the work that is currently being undertaken by the task force. After this first goal is met, and structure criteria is developed and approved by the Board, the group will then tackle the other two objectives, and they are
- Establish the membership of the Center, and
- Conduct a robust strategic planning process, to establish, Purpose, Vision, and Mission, and to create the long term strategic plan for this new and exciting venture.
We will keep the industry posted as this work progresses, but we are moving in a positive direction, and one the industry supports. In our industry survey in late 2020, 80% of industry stakeholders who responded said that sustainability is either important, or very important to the future of the industry. This means that growers and importers alike agree we need to find our story, and our future when it comes to sustainability in our industry. The future is bright, and our work on sustainability will continue to make sure the positive stories of our industry are shared with customers and consumers who are engaged with sustainability.
Other Happenings
Pioneering New Partnerships in Healthcare to Motivate Recommendations
Fresh Avocados – Love One Today partners with two established organizations to reach health professionals with resources and research to help them feel confident in recommending fresh avocado.
HAB Webinar: Avocado – Embarking on a Balancing Act
The avocado market has long been governed by demand – a unique circumstance in the fruit and vegetable trade. But is that about to change? Has it already? Massive surface area expansions in recent years are raising questions.
New Feature on Love One Today
The Hass Avocado Board’s job is to make avocados America’s most popular fruit and now it’s easier than ever for consumers and health professionals to access Love One Today’s turnkey resources about the benefits of fresh avocados.
Updates & Resources
While the concept of data sharing is as old as HAB itself, in the early days, the quality was hampered by the pervasive mistrust among the HAB partners. Yet, over time as collaboration and cooperation evolved, so did the credibility and quality of the data inputs. The key players saw the value and built the Avocado Volume and Inventory System (AVIS) which became a widely successful global industry intelligence engine providing invaluable information related to U.S. avocado supply, inventory and sales.