The Atherton Tablelands was once an agricultural mosaic of corn and sorghum crops intertwined with dairy production and tropical fruits.
But now the landscape is awash with green-leafed trees. In fact, hectares upon hectares of avocados.
There is no doubt the avocado industry contributes significantly to Far North Queensland's economy.
The gross value of production for avocados was estimated at $493 million in September 2020, with North Queensland contributing 26 per cent of production.
"The last 10 years until recently we've had very strong domestic demand," John Tyas, chief executive of Avocados Australia, says.
"In 2012-2013, North Queensland's production was around 10,000 tonnes out of about 55,000 tonnes, nationally.
"In 2021-2022, North Queensland produced about 30 to 33,000 tonnes, so triple what they did 10 years earlier and the national crop was about 122,000 tonnes."
While this impressive expansion provided growers with a premium fruit income, it has in recent years led to an avocado glut hitting the market.
A report by agribusiness bank Rabobank released last year, found the avocado industry has undergone enormous growth since 2017.
It is a trend not gone unnoticed by local avocado growers.
Managing director of Rock Ridge Farming, an avocado operation in Tolga in the Tablelands, Peter Howe says avocado trees "have really shot up" in the area.
"There's never really been this many in the area, it's probably at least triple or more," he says.
"If you went back 10 years, there probably were only 400 or 500 hectares of avocados but now we have 350 hectares of our own.
"Wherever you look, there's more and more going on in."
Growers getting out
The rapid expansion of avocados in the Tablelands is keeping local real estate agent John Falvo busy.
Mr Falvo, a principal at Mareeba Property Office, says new international players in the game are forcing the hands of many local growers.
"I've seen many improvements, lots of new people coming in, including South African families from overseas, buying properties and planting them up with avocado trees," he says.
"They are into their full production and yes, it's all accumulating on our markets and affecting price, as well as the great big American company that's planted, I believe over 120,000 avocado trees recently."
Dozens of avocado farms are listed for sale in Mareeba alone with recent low fruit prices the key contributing factor.
But the fruit's price is also the reason many are struggling to sell.
"The lower prices have put people off from buying, avocado farms are not the flavour at the moment," Mr Falvo says.
"Until the markets change and become more consistent, I think we have challenges trying to sell these properties."
In a catch-22 situation
Dropping everything and selling is not an option for many avocado growers.
It can take anywhere from three to 10 years for avocado trees to produce fruit.
"It's a bit of a catch-22 for farmers as they've outlaid all this money, expenditure on irrigation, trees, farmland, and water purchases," Mr Falvo says.
"Once the plants are in the ground, you've really got to see it through, you've got to make the trees either produce or you try and sell them with the potential of them producing."
Glut to continue
As with any agricultural supply and demand situation, the solution often lies with the consumer.
James Howe, an employee of Howe Farming Enterprises in Walkamin, says consumers are playing their part.
"Hats off to the Australian consumers who are eating as many as they are, I hope they can eat more," he says.
Peter Howe, from Rock Ridge Farming, says an oversupply will continue for years to come.
"We will have oversupply for another four or five years before it sorts itself out," he says.
But not all avocado growers are feeling the pain of oversupply.
Green Skin Avocadoes' executive marketing director Treena Welch says business is booming.
"Our business hasn't experienced any need to dump avocados and our production has grown really strongly over time," she says.
"Of all the Australian households that are buying avocados at the moment, it's 51 per cent of them that are only buying on average six times a year, so there's a big upside there," she says.
