A tissue-culture propagation technology developed at The University of Queensland to grow hundreds of plants from a single cutting is set to bolster avocado production across Latin America to meet growing demand.

A team led by Professor Neena Mitter at UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation developed the technology and it was licensed to the Chilean nursery Grupo Hijuelas by UniQuest, UQ’s commercialisation company.

UQ’s Dr Chris O’Brien said the technology would speed up the production of 4 key avocado rootstocks in the region.

“The propagation and tissue culture technology is a faster and cheaper way of producing clonal rootstocks, which have traditionally taken around 18 months to grow,” he said.

“An avocado tree’s rootstock influences its performance and using seedling rootstocks can lead to variable quality.

“This UQ technology means we can use clonal trees with the traits growers want, which means they can grow better crops.”

Dr O’Brien said the team will travel to Chile to demonstrate the technology later this year with the aim to boost Zutano, Velvick, Reed and Kidd avocado rootstock production.

Grupo Hijuelas’ CEO Juan Goycoolea said he was excited about the collaboration as the partnership promised to drive agricultural research and development across Latin America.

“We are working with cutting-edge technology that has shown excellent results in evaluation plots in Australia and we want to bring these benefits to our producers,” he said.

Grupo Hijuelas has an international presence through its own nurseries and strategic partnerships in countries including Chile, Peru, Mexico, South Africa, Colombia, and also in Europe.

UniQuest CEO Dr Dean Moss said the UQ technology empowered avocado producers to quickly scale-up plant production with fantastic benefits to both farmers and consumers.

“It’s no secret that South Americans are among the largest consumers of avocados in the world, as well as huge exporters to European markets,” he said.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for exceptional UQ research to help build an agriculture pipeline of avocados that is efficient and plentiful in years to come.”

The tissue-culture propagation technology was first licensed in Australia to Anderson Horticulture for Reed avocado rootstock in 2022.

The deal is the recipient of the 2024 UniQuest Commercialisation Impact Award.

The technology was developed as an outcome from research funded by the Australian Research Council with contributions from UQ, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Anderson Horticulture, Jasper Farms, and Millwood Holdings.