This year a new product appeared on Australian supermarket shelves, ready to eat avocado in multi-use packaging. The packaged avocado, which stays fresher longer, is easy for consumers to handle,
relies on the technology of high-pressured cold pasteurisation. A major supermarket chain has
backed the product and AvoFresh has been available to shoppers for over 6 months.
The product appears simple but behind AvoFresh is extensive R & D. "We have spent over $1
Million getting the AvoFresh products through R & D design and ready for market", said Trent De Paoli,
the managing director of Pressure Fresh Australia, the Bundaberg based company making AvoFresh.
The R & D for AvoFresh was focused in 3 main areas:
"R & D is absolutely crucial to long-term sustainability and profitability of a business", Trent De Paoli siad.
Australia produces about 50,000 tonne of avocado's a year and production is growing.
With a well developed product, Pressure Fresh Australia received a grant of more than $364,000 from
Commercialisation Australia. "The grant really enabled us to get going", said Trent De Paoli.
"We had the idea for some time and the primary research had been completed. Without the support
of Commercialisation Australia it would still be a researched idea". Commercialisation Australia is an
Australian Government Program which assists businesses to transform their ideas into
commercial reality.