Looking for some fun facts for your point-of-sale material? Here are some of the ones we collected from grower-shippers for the cover story in the July-August issue of Produce Retailer magazine.
It makes sense to start with the basics: How do you pick a ripe avocado? Produce people know, but according to The Packer's Fresh Trends consumer survey, only 39% of folks are confident in their ability to select correctly.
Shoppers in the highest income bracket ($100,000-plus) expressed a much higher comfort level with selecting an avocado (53%) than even those in the next-highest income bracket ($50,000-$100,000).
More than half of consumers in the West were confident in picking the fruit, but that wasn’t the case for shoppers in the Midwest (34%), South (35%) and Northeast (31%).
There wasn’t as much variation in comfort level by age, but Hispanic consumers tended to be more confident (55%) than Caucasians (41%), Asians (42%), African Americans (22%) and other ethnicities (43%).
“Because color is not always an indication of ripeness, we suggest giving your avocados a light press near the neck to feel for yield,” said Jennifer Anazawa, category manager for Oxnard, Calif.-based Mission Produce. “If it yields easily to gentle pressure, it’s ripe and ready to eat. You can always speed ripening at home by enclosing avocados in a brown paper bag with an apple or banana and leaving on the counter for a day or two. Once ripe, refrigerate to keep ripe for several more days.”
Shoppers looking to eat the fruit later in the week should select a hard, brighter green avocado that will continue to ripen, said Dennis Christou, vice president of marketing for Coral Gables, Fla.-based Del Monte Fresh Produce.
“We also encourage consumers to avoid fruit with dark blemishes or over-soft fruit,” Christou said.
Avocado Fun Facts
- Avocado toast and avocado-based salad dressings are just a few uses of the fruit that go beyond guacamole. Del Monte even has a recipe for Chocolate and Avocado Protein Balls.
- There are more than 1,000 varieties of avocado, but hass is the most common one eaten in the U.S.
- Avocados have more potassium that a banana. “Next time you get a cramp, reach for an avocado,” Anazawa said.
Know something that should be on this list but is not? Give us a shout — we'd love to add it.
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