Australia’s largest avocado packing, marketing and export business has unveiled a $17 million expansion of its Manjimup facility, using robotics, artificial intelligence and automation to dramatically increase the amount of fruit it can process.

The Avocado Collective’s expanded facility at Ringbark, in WA’s South West, can now pack up to 100,000 trays of avocadoes a day, compared with about 30,000 previously.

Nine robotic machines are among the technology introduced as part of the upgrade, along with a new 10-lane grader, automated pallet handling and scanning, expanded cool rooms and new packing sheds.

Artificial intelligence and cameras are also being used to inspect and grade avocados, with the system capable of scanning about 100 pieces of fruit a second for quality and imperfections.

Automation has reduced the number of people required on the packing shed floor by about 40 to 50 while substantially increasing the facility’s capacity.

Robotic pallet packing has also removed much of the manual handling previously involved in stacking hundreds of pallets.

The investment comes as avocadoes cement their position as WA’s most important fruit crop, with the State producing more than a quarter of Australia’s supply.

WA is Australia’s second-largest avocado-producing state and national production is heading towards record levels, with agricultural banking specialist Rabobank forecasting supply could reach 170,000 tonnes in coming seasons.

Exports are also becoming increasingly important as the industry looks for markets for the additional fruit.

The Avocado Collective already exports to markets across Asia and the Middle East and has developed a year-round Australian supply chain by sourcing fruit from Western Australia and Queensland.

Its export markets include Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and India, with the company exporting up to 40 per cent of its total crop.

The WA Government recently named The Avocado Collective as one of three finalists in the Agribusiness, Food and Beverages category of the 2026 WA Export Awards, describing it as Australia’s largest avocado packing, marketing and export business.

The grower-owned company works with more than 70 growers across Australia and supplies avocados to domestic and international markets.

The $17 million investment allows substantially larger quantities of fruit to be graded, packed and distributed while reducing the cost and downtime involved in processing each batch.

Previously, changing batches could stop production for about five minutes at a time, with more than 90 people working on the packing floor.

Automation has reduced changeover times to less than a minute while allowing different grades and tray sizes to be scanned, labelled and directed through the facility automatically.

Technology also extends beyond the physical handling of the fruit, with the new operation integrating production, order management, consignment allocation, quality control, materials ordering and grower and customer reporting.

Electronic ordering is integrated with major grocery customers, while production and financial information can be monitored in real time.

The expansion comes at a time when avocado growers and packers are facing increasing labour and energy costs, changes to the Horticulture Award and Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme requirements, and broader inflationary pressures.

Greater automation and packing capacity provide a way of handling increasing volumes without costs rising at the same rate, which is important as abundant Australian supply continues to keep retail avocado prices relatively low.

The Avocado Collective has operated since 2007 and works across the supply chain, including quality assurance, packing, marketing, cold-chain management and development of domestic and export markets.

The expanded Ringbark operation was unveiled this week at an event attended by growers, customers, agents, contractors and others involved in the industry.

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Sunday, 3rd January 2027

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