The Philippines has outpaced other Asian countries in exporting Hass avocados, considered a high-value crop, to Japan.

The shipment was sent off this past Friday, according to Bureau of Plant Industry Director Gerald Glenn Panganiban in an interview on Dos Por Dos.

This first export is only a modest 12 tons, but Panganiban hopes that by the following year, the country’s export of the premium crop will have ballooned into 500 metric tons.

The Hass variety of avocado is smaller than the regular kind, about as big as a fist or a pomegranate, the director said.