Enormous avocado demand lets prices soar

Avocado prices have grown considerably since the start of the year. There are two reasons for the surge: increased demand and lower supplies because of several abysmal harvests in Latin America.

Healthy food

Avocados are very popular: wellness gurus praise the food because it is filled with healthy unsaturated fats and because of its high nutritional value. Over the last decade, Americans doubled their annual avocado intake from 1.6 to 3.2 kilograms. Chinese consumption grew 250 % and European demand is on the rise as well.

Manufacturers can hardly keep up with the increased demand. Avocado trees alternate between good and bad years because they need to recover after a major harvest and this happens to be a weak year. The world’s largest avocado manufacturer, Mexico, also had to deal with some bad weather, which also had its effect on the harvest.

That combination has now pushed prices up. Avocado’s most popular version, Hass, has now become twice as expensive when compared to the pricing at the start of the year. The manufacturing countries will now expand their production areas for avocados in order to meet the increased demand and to counter the weaker years.