Seemingly always on the rise with consumers, avocados are a hot commodity to watch. Let's dig into what's happening with avocado volume and retail sales — both conventional and organic.
This data is powered by Agtools, a data science and analytics company providing a worldwide software as-a-service platform gathering real-time government and institutional data of more than 500 specialty crops and commodities. The Agtools platform includes algorithms and machine learning for farmers, buyers and everyone on the supply chain to see and decide how to manage their forecasting and purchase orders.
Graph: Courtesy of Agtools
Avocados by region
First up, it's no surprise more than 90% of avocados consumed in the U.S. come from Mexico from Jan. 1 to June 26, 2023. Then comes Southern California at almost 4%, closely followed by the Dominican Republic, Peru, Colombia, Florida, Chile — and a tiny bit from Jamaica.
What does look surprising is the 42.5% jump from the first half of 2022 to the first half of 2023 in Mexican avocado volume. But that extreme change could be related to the shortage after the U.S. suspended all Mexican avocado imports in early 2022, when a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received threats.
Learn on PMG: Avocados, the commodity
Graph: Courtesy of Agtools
(Graph: Courtesy of Agtools)
Avocado volume
We compared conventional avocado volumes sold in the U.S. from Jan. 1 through June 11, 2023, with the same time period the previous three years, and then we did the same for organic avocados. (See the chart above.)
Overall, it looks like organic avocados have done a lot better so far in 2023 than they did in the first half of 2022 and 2021. You do see the big hit organic avocados took in February 2022, when the U.S. ban on Mexican avocados hit supplies. Organic avocado volume had great success in April and the first half of May compared with the previous two years — so congrats on whatever promotion that was such a success at that time, unless it was a market condition.
Related: Agtools data on blueberries
Graph: Courtesy of Agtools
Graph: Courtesy of Agtools
Avocado retail prices
The year 2022 was a banner year for higher conventional hass avocado prices at supermarkets nationwide. However, this year so far was neck and neck with 2021's retail prices.
But for organic retail sales, 2022 was much higher-priced than 2023 and 2021 until late March or early April, when the dips and jumps were all over the place. The organic prices in 2023 remained relatively stable, like it did in 2021.
This article was published in PMG magazine's July/August issue. To flip through the digital version of this issue and others, visit producemarketguide.com's Digital Editions.