Avocado Prices Have Nearly Doubled Since Last Year Due to High Demand
If you noticed the cost of avocados has been unusually high lately, you’re not imagining it.
The wholesale cost of the popular fruit saw a jump in price earlier this month that was 129 percent higher than the year before, according to USA Today.
The price of an avocado for the first week in July this year was $84.25 for a 25 lb. box, compared to just $37 in July 2018, David Magaña, vice president and senior analyst at Rabobank, told the outlet.
“This is the highest price for this time of the year in at least a decade, probably more,” he said.
Talk that prices would increase emerged earlier this year after President Trump threatened to place tariffs on Mexican goods, but the latest avocado price surge can actually be attributed to high demand – and the fact that California experienced its smallest avocado crop in more than 10 years.
“These high prices have to do with seasonal production in Mexico,” Magaña said. “It’s normally the lowest at this time of the year.”
Mexico supplies 90 percent of the United States’ avocados, according to USA Today.
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The United States Department of Agriculture’s current retail report for the week of July 12 lists the average retail price of a Hass avocado at $1.25, 12 cents more than it was this time last year. The Associated Press reports that the fruit went for $2.23 per pound the week of July 12.
Citing a government consumer protection agency report, the AP said the prices were due to a drop in production of 1.2 percent.
Still, those craving guacamole need not fret, as Magaña said consumers should expect to see a drop in prices when production in Mexico “ramps up” in three or four weeks.
