A different way of thinking about avocado oil production

In the latest installment of this series, Andrew Logan, from www.AvoHealth.com, invites stakeholders in the avocado oil industry to explore new ways of working.

It could be said that a “perfect storm” hit the avocado oil industry in 2025-2026. There are many reasons why we need to change. AvoHealth offers various solutions; some require real data from operating factories to verify our estimates. For my part, I am confident that, in some countries, oil processing generates more value than exporting fresh avocados to distant markets.

High-quality avocado oil allows us to “buy time” and is easier to transport than fresh avocado. The original New Zealand production principles remain excellent and are now supported by research and favorable technological advances.

In recent years, machinery supply companies have dominated the launch of new avocado oil projects. No one has been requesting independent advice.

Too many new machines are excessively large, and some are not suitable for consistently producing high-quality avocado oil. As a result, almost all factories are missing important opportunities and need to obtain greater revenue from each avocado they process. Many changes that appear small can make a big difference. This presentation:

• Does not aim to evaluate the quality of each supplier’s machines.

• Focuses solely on the optimal design and suitability of each machine for the required task.

• Highlights deficiencies in most machinery quotations, which omit some equipment and/or include oversized and/or unsuitable machines.

Hundreds of avocado varieties obtained through cross-pollination, with different proportions of seed, skin, pulp, oil and moisture, show differences in their performance during oil extraction.

Why Removing Seed and Skin Improves the Oil

The removal of seed and skin benefits all avocado oils by improving:

1. The quality of the oil and its health benefits.

2. Extraction yield. In theory, the greatest improvements are obtained in varieties other than Hass with high moisture content, a larger seed or thicker skin.

3. The reduction of oil and water present in the residual paste. Adding value to each residual product, rather than paying to remove toxic waste.

4. The service life of some machines, including the decanter.

5. AvoHealth systems require less labor, consume less electricity and water, and generate less wastewater. Any opportunity to save, perhaps, 10,000 liters of water per day is significant.

Industrial production is always a “numbers game.” We hope industry stakeholders recognize that the particular characteristics of avocado oil require processing solutions different from those used for olive oil.

We are confident that a fully operational AvoHealth production system significantly increases sales revenue, based on conservative assumptions and typical market prices as of September 2026. The financial model is based on research conducted in Kenya, with a production line built according to our specifications by Vitone Eco,

6. The model processes 7,000 kg of carefully ripened avocados per hour at the initial stage of the line, up to the destoner. Then, a smaller and less expensive system processes 5,000 kg of paste per hour through the malaxers, decanter and other associated equipment.

7. Daily fruit consumption is calculated based on 21.5 hours of full-capacity operation: 150,000 kg of fruit per day, compared with 107,000 kg with a “Option B” line. Operating at full capacity 24 hours a day, seven days a week is not realistic, as delays and interruptions are inevitable.

8. In 2026, avocado prices for processing in Kenya were among the highest in the world, due to a poor harvest and the large number of new oversized lines that increased demand for fruit. Prices could fall if everyone understands that it is not worthwhile to purchase overripe, low-quality avocados with low dry matter content.

9. Fruit quality, including its degree of ripeness and oil content (dry matter), is a fundamental factor:

Ripeness and Dry Matter: The Decisive Factor

A fresh fruit salad, carefully prepared for your best friends, can be seriously ruined by a single piece of rotten, smelly and overripe fruit. Those friends will also not like finding unripe, hard, bitter and sour fruit.

The same applies exactly to avocado oil. Rotten fruit disproportionately affects the quality of the oil. We cannot extract oil from fruit that is “hard as a rock.”

Mexico produces canned pineapple, and Thika, which could be considered the cradle of Kenyan avocado, has a Del Monte pineapple cannery.

International consumers do not buy Del Monte pineapple cans with pieces of skin that have not been properly removed, nor with overripe, soft and unpleasant contents.

Low-quality crude oil generates lower revenue, because refining it requires higher temperatures, more chemicals and greater losses during the process, which considerably increases costs.

When two brothers come home after playing soccer, it is obvious that one of their uniforms costs more to wash because it requires more time, effort and detergent!

Extraction Yield: 8.5% vs. 8.0%

10. The average oil extraction yield is calculated by comparing the weight of the oil obtained with the weight of the fruit immediately before processing. Actual yields are above or below this average during almost the entire season, so the figure can be misleading. The AvoHealth line achieved an average yield of 8.5%, compared with 8.0% for the Plan B option.

To maintain a conservative estimate, the calculated yield increase from processing Hass avocado with a destoner, instead of a hammer mill, was reduced from 0.75 to 0.5 percentage points. Production is distributed as 55% extra virgin oil and 45% high-quality crude oil, some of the latter with less than 2.0% free fatty acids (FFA). It is possible to produce up to 95% extra virgin oil.

11. All sales are for bulk oil. Bottling for consumer sales can increase sales revenue.

Extra Virgin Oil and Crude Oil: Price Differences

Extra virgin oil prices are relatively stable. Those for crude oil could continue to decline, but are more reasonable than the exorbitant prices of 2025, when refineries recorded enormous demand for cheaper avocado oil products that were fraudulently blended with other oils.

Currently, extra virgin oil sold in IBC containers generates more than 40% higher revenue than high-quality crude oil. Further declines in the price of crude oil will make extra virgin oil even more attractive.

12. Avocado ripening is the most difficult challenge in this business. It becomes even more complex when fruit harvested on different days arrives in the same truck, with different dry matter contents and degrees of ripeness. We would love to know if anyone can perfectly ripen a larger volume of fruit per hour.

Ethylene, a gas that avocados release as they ripen, accelerates the ripening process. Generally, boxes surrounded by other boxes ripen faster, because they become small ripening chambers filled with ethylene! Unfortunately, those boxes are always the most difficult to reach.

13. The model assumes that crude oil obtained from whole fruit, with an average free fatty acid (FFA) content of 8%, high peroxide levels, dark color and unpleasantly intense flavor and odor, is sold for 65 cents less per kilogram than AvoHealth crude oil, whose FFA content ranges from 0.4% to less than 4.0%. Any factory with an average FFA content above or below 8% will obtain slightly different results.

14. AvoHealth has conducted extensive research on animal husbandry using residual paste and considers the projected revenue to be realistic and achievable.

End-of-season revenue from wastewater aquaculture is only a rough estimate. Naturally, each project requires a commissioning period and installation costs. However, the cost of raw material is already included in the oil production calculations.

15. To date, no revenue from seed and skin is accounted for. In the future, seeds could be the most valuable part of the avocado. For now, the skin is an excellent fuel or material for mulching the soil around trees.

Crushed seed has excellent properties for mosquito and malaria control.

The economic viability of extracting oil from the seed requires careful evaluation. Compared with pulp oil, seed oil contains more stearic acid (C18:0) and linoleic acid (C18:2), but almost no palmitoleic acid (C16:1), an omega-7 monounsaturated fatty acid.

Seed oil is NOT classified or approved as an edible oil under standard food safety regulations. Bitter in taste, with low yield and costly extraction, avocado seed oil is an exceptional ingredient for high-end skincare products. Its powerful antioxidants protect the skin better than conventional pulp oil. It feels lighter and is absorbed more quickly. There is currently no active market, but it is likely to have significant value.

AvoHealth Predictions for the Future:

Although some oil is used in high-quality pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, our main business is producing one of the healthiest and most expensive edible oils in the world, aimed at a fairly exclusive audience that is highly educated, health-conscious and high-income. This requires our industry to consistently maintain the highest food production standards, with high efficiency.

16. Machines will become smaller until we learn to ripen fruit precisely.

17. Future oil factories could use advanced fruit sorting technology, such as that used by the best export packing plants, to estimate the ripening time of each avocado.

18. It is necessary to reduce the number of intermediaries involved in the delivery of fruit, international transportation or distribution of the final product. The accumulation of several percentage margins multiplies the price paid by consumers.

• Fruit intermediaries often do not understand concepts such as dry matter or degree of ripeness, but they supply significant volumes with very high margins. Regional avocado cooperatives in Kenya offer an excellent commercial alternative for growers.

• Specialized companies, including AvoHealth, earn a margin by finding buyers for the products.

• Transport and insurance intermediaries can facilitate the transportation process.

• In the destination country, an importer may sell to a distributor, who sells to a wholesaler, who in turn sells to the retailer.

Reducing these margins is a challenge. It is perfectly possible to sell packaged products directly to final consumers through platforms such as Amazon.

19. More and more oil refineries, bottling lines and companies using avocado oil will locate near oil factories. It is highly inefficient to ship crude oil to a refinery in central Spain or Italy and then to markets such as the United States or other destinations!

20. Electricity is the second-largest production cost, after fruit. Solar energy is a very sensible investment for most factories. Rainwater harvesting from rooftops can also be useful.

21. Winterization, which allows waxes to be removed from the oil, is the most environmentally friendly refining process. It is easy to achieve small cost savings and additional sales revenue that currently only refineries obtain, as they receive their waxes for free.

For every 1% of wax removed from a 26,000-liter flexitank, approximately 240 kg more product can be transported at no additional cost.

Waxes offer high-value commercial opportunities as an ingredient for specialty cosmetics, industrial lubricants, candles, floor waxes, margarines and solid vegetable fats for the food industry.

22. AvoHealth consistently recommends that every avocado oil factory have land available to add value to residual products. Transporting them by truck to distant locations is costly, slow and inefficient. Oxidized residual paste is less attractive as animal feed.

The Oil Production Team

The inspiration for creating a truly positive and enthusiastic work environment, which influences business success, always starts with the company’s leaders.

By their nature, most tasks in a factory are highly repetitive. Workers capable of performing in any area of the factory provide more value and have more interesting jobs.

Many companies can improve future decision-making through better data collection and more rigorous recording of all aspects of their production.

In the future, industry participants will need to treat all actors in the avocado oil supply chain fairly, honestly and with integrity, including growers, factory workers, distributors and final consumers.

AvoHealth believes that everyone wants a consistent and fully authentic product, with much higher oil quality standards. Achieving this will bring the great reward of a considerable increase in sales revenue.

The Final Reflection:

The avocado oil business has an enormous future by extracting oil from the world’s healthiest fruit. AvoHealth has the vision and experience to help any company that wants to turn those “missed opportunities” into profits. We:

• Are like an architect, in the sense that the particular circumstances of each factory require specialized and tailored advice, with continuous feedback and support.

• Are not machinery technicians or salespeople. We simply want you to do better.

• Do not want anyone to fail. We do not even agree to work with new investors unless our initial free assessment indicates that the project can succeed.

The dramatic cost increases of 2026 were disastrous for many companies processing approximately US$7,000 worth of “poorly handled” fruit every hour. AvoHealth is confident that its systems allow significantly higher sales revenue to be obtained from every kilogram of Hass avocado entering the processing line.

AvoHealth still has many ideas to demonstrate.

Our projection of the increase in sales revenue per kilogram of fruit entering the processing line shows that, of the total increase:

• 26.5% (US$0.133) comes from adding value to residual paste and wastewater.

• 73.5% (US$0.367) is attributed to producing more and higher-quality oil.

The objective is for at least 50% of sales revenue to come from residual products, and we are confident that this can and will happen.

AvoHealth currently has an unlimited supply of 100% pure refined avocado oil, both RBD (refined, bleached and deodorized) and RBDW (refined, bleached, deodorized and winterized).

We are looking for a partner with whom to produce the highest-quality extra virgin avocado oil, for which we have received numerous inquiries.

Andrew Logan
Avocado Health Limited
WhatsApp:+64 21 428 645
andrew@AvoHealth.com 
www.AvoHealth.com|