Juan Ignacio Goycoolea, CEO of Grupo Hijuelas, together with Professor Neena Mitter from the University of Queensland, visiting experimental avocado orchards in Australia.
Improved plant quality and phytosanitary standards, greater orchard uniformity, reduced costs—particularly in time—and enhanced market competitiveness are among the key outcomes of an innovative avocado-production technology developed by the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, and exclusively licensed to Grupo Hijuelas for Chile and Latin America.
This first-of-its-kind agricultural technology worldwide, based on tissue culture propagation, enables the production of hundreds of avocado plants from a single meristematic tissue. Developed at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) by Professor Neena Mitter and her research team, the technology is set to exponentially boost avocado production across Latin America.
The exclusive license granted to Grupo Hijuelas represents a major milestone, providing a tool capable of significantly accelerating plant production timelines and expanding avocado availability across key markets.
“We are working with state-of-the-art technology that has delivered excellent results in experimental orchards in Australia, shortening plant production timelines by several years for fruit growers,” said Juan Ignacio Goycoolea, CEO of Grupo Hijuelas.
“Our goal is to bring these benefits directly to Latin American producers—enabling them to access high-demand markets not only in a much shorter timeframe, but also with superior quality and phytosanitary standards in the final product.”
Goycoolea also highlighted that Grupo Hijuelas operates as a global agricultural development platform, with its own nurseries and strategic partnerships across Chile, Peru, Mexico, South Africa, Colombia, and Europe. This geographic reach will facilitate access to the technology for avocado producers throughout Chile and Latin America.
Professor Neena Mitter at the University of Queensland laboratories, demonstrating the avocado tissue-culture propagation technology—capable of producing hundreds of plants from a single tissue sample—to Queensland Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries, Mark Furner.
Key Benefits
According to Dr. Chris O’Brien of the University of Queensland, the technology dramatically reduces the time required to produce clonal rootstocks, which traditionally take around 18 months, thereby “resolving the main bottleneck in the avocado industry,” as noted in a University of Queensland publication in 2021.
“Tissue culture propagation is a much faster way to produce clonal rootstocks, which normally takes over a year and is quite costly,” Dr. O’Brien explained. “This allows us to use clonal trees with the characteristics growers are looking for, ultimately resulting in better yields.”
Dr. O’Brien added that the technology will support the production of avocado rootstocks from varieties such as Zutano, Velvick, Reed, and Kidd.
Exclusive License to Grupo Hijuelas
The license was granted to Grupo Hijuelas by UniQuest, the commercialization company of the University of Queensland. This collaboration aligns with Grupo Hijuelas’ vision of becoming the world’s leading agricultural development platform, expanding its portfolio, products, and markets.
Dr. Dean Moss, CEO of UniQuest, stated that the technology empowers growers to rapidly scale plant production, delivering significant benefits for both farmers and consumers.
“It is no secret that South America is one of the world’s largest avocado consumers and exporters, particularly to the European market,” he said. “This represents a fantastic opportunity for UQ research to help build a highly efficient and abundant avocado supply chain in the years ahead.”
The technology was developed through research funded by the Australian Research Council, with contributions from the University of Queensland, the Australian Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Anderson Horticulture, Jasper Farms, and Millwood Holdings.
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