Ahead of Cinco de Mayo, avocado prices at new high
A smaller crop and increasing demand are pushing the cost up.
Of all the months to face an avocado shortage, May is an especially bad one. Because of a diminished avocado crop in California and Mexico and increased demand for avocados worldwide, restaurateurs and consumers will have to pay as much as twice the usual cost for the fruit — which is going to cut into your enjoyment of that Cinco de Mayo guacamole.
Avocados are “alternate-bearing crops, with large harvests one year and smaller ones the next,” Bloomberg reports. This year’s harvest is the latter, and the already-reduced supply is being stretched thinner by greater demand.
Americans, it seems, can’t get
enough avocados. U.S. per capita consumption was only 1.1 pounds in 1989, but rose to 7 pounds by 2014, according to the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center. Trends such as avocado toast and the growth of fast-casual Mexican chains such as Chipotle can surely take credit for some of the increase during that time. There has also been higher avocado consumption in China and Europe, which is also cutting into the supply this year and increasing prices.
According to the Hass Avocado Board, the average sales price for an avocado was 89 cents in January. By March 19, the latest week of data reported, it had risen to $1.25. At a Giant grocery store in Washington, D.C.’s Columbia Heights neighborhood, avocados are selling for $2 each. Bloomberg notes that the wholesale price of a 22-pound-box of Hass avocados — $27.89 — is the highest amount it has ever been since prices started being documented nearly 20 years ago.
At Mexican restaurants, there is reason for alarm. A case of 32 avocados costs “almost double from what we’ve been paying the last couple of months,” with the price rising from $40 to $70, said Alfredo Solis, chef-owner of Mezcalero and El Sol, two Mexican restaurants in Washington.
In the middle of all of this comes Cinco de Mayo, which many Americans commemorate by throwing back margaritas and eating at Mexican restaurants.
Those restaurants, eager to entice new customers, often run specials and discounts. Solis says he’s going to charge $2 for tacos and $4 for guacamole on Friday. He doesn’t expect to make any money that day. “You bring them to the restaurants that day, and they come back,” he said. “I will make money later.”
There has also been higher avocado consumption in China and Europe, which is also cutting into the supply and increasing prices.