Most avocado category growth in 2016 did not come from the shoppers most fascinated with the fruit, according to a Hass Avocado Board report.
About 25% of avocado consumers generate about 75% of category sales, but that “super heavy” segment only accounted for 4% of year-over-year growth. The board defines super heavy households as those that spend more than $25.36 on the fruit annually, though the average annual spend in the group is $66.38.
The “medium” shopper segment — people spending $3.69-9.77 on avocados each year — was responsible for 45.7% of incremental sales in 2016.
The “heavy” shopper group — folks dishing out $9.78-25.35 for the fruit annually — contributed 38.4% of the growth.
Medium and heavy households accounted for $7.9 million in incremental sales.
In total, 24.8% of avocado sales in 2016 were made to those two groups.
Heavy segment
Walmart, club stores and mass merchandisers all drew more heavy shoppers in 2016, each increasing that segment at least 4%.
That segment accounted for $2.6 million in sales growth for Walmart and $4 million for club stores, which saw the number of heavy shoppers in the channel grow 13.5%.
The dollar sales increase for avocados at mass merchandisers was more modest, but that channel saw avocado buying trips by heavy shoppers increase a whopping 16.2%.
In the grocery channel, heavy shoppers purchased $2.7 million less in than they did in 2016. Trips were also down 1.9%.
Medium segment
Walmart and club stores saw the most growth in number of medium shoppers, with 6.5% and 8.7%, respectively.
Incremental purchases from this group at Walmart totaled $1.9 million, and the grocery channel was not far behind at $1.7 million, apparently boosted by a 2.1% gain in the number of medium shoppers.
Grocery is by far the biggest retail channel for avocados, with about $1 billion in sales in 2016, followed by Walmart at $176 million and club stores at $141 million.