Our very first serious marital disagreement was over a food item my husband and I both adored—the avocado. Our big debate was whether avocado was a fruit or a vegetable.

Vic, who grew up in California and loved avocado with seafood, lemon, yogurt, cheese, olives, and capers, insisted it could not be anything but a vegetable. Sneaky me served him avocado ice cream, milk shake, and strawberry-avocado chilled layers and dared him call it a vegetable.

Like all marital debates, that one ended in a draw—we agreed that avocado could be everything and anything that a superfood was supposed to be. Vic learned to love avocado in desserts.

Handcarried treasures 

While living in Hong Kong in the 1970s, I commuted to Manila two to four times a month to cover news events for UPITN and ABC News. My luggage from Hong Kong contained wine, cheese, sausages, and frozen steaks. On the flight back to HK, the bags contained avocados wrapped in newspapers or bubble-wrap to cushion the delicate fruit from the bumps and grinds of air travel.
Our expat friends in HK all loved avocado, which were imported from the US by supermarkets and available only seasonally for $2 each. In Manila, avocados in season sell wholesale for ₱10 per kilo, or half that when fully ripe.

Where are Pinoy avocados? 

Fruit importers explained the many reasons Filipino avocados were absent in international fruit markets. The first was lack of uniformity. The Philippines did not have a serious avocado fruit industry—hundreds of varieties are grown in small backyard plots. The variants grown are diverse in size, eating quality, and color. The lack of uniformity poses problems in packaging and shipping.

Success after 15 years 

And now, the good news: The Philippines has started exporting avocados to South Korea after nearly 15 years of discussions.
The Philippines’ first export shipment of fresh avocados to South Korea left on Sept. 30, 2023 in a ceremonial send-off from the KTC Port Tibungco in DavaoCity.
The Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) exported the maiden batch of Philippine Hass avocados to Korea following discussions on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) concerns and the sustainability of the fruits export volume.

The Philippines exported an initial shipment of 3,040 boxes of the fruit valued at $48,433. It took the Philippines 15 years before South Korea agreed to accommodate fresh Philippine avocados into its domestic fruit market.

The BPI expressed its intention to export fresh Hass avocado fruits to Korea on Sept. 25, 2009, on behalf of Dole Philippines. The DA’s Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA) of the Republic of Korea and BPI reached a historic agreement on June 19, 2023, which came into effect as of Sept. 8, 2023.

The DA said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is committed to the acceleration of agricultural development by opening the country’s doors to Philippine fruit exports.
Under his leadership, the Philippines is continuously making progress in creating opportunities in the global market and solidifying its capability to trade top-quality agricultural products.

 

Export quality 

Dole, one of the country’s largest producers of fruits, describes their Hass avocado as creamy and smooth, with no bitter taste. The Korean government has approved the export of Philippine Hass avocado to South Korea, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced on Sept. 12, 2023.

Hass is a variety of avocado that is dark green in color with bumpy peel, which when ripe, becomes dark purplish-black and yields to gentle pressure.
The fresh Hass avocado exports from the Philippines are expected to be sourced from the orchards and packing houses of Dole Philippines in Davao, Bukidnon, and South Cotabato.