Avocado prices rising in time for Cinco de Mayo

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 really 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 seven 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. Our mania for the fruit has gone global, too: There has 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's Columbia Heights neighborhood, avocados are selling for $2 each. Wholesale, Bloomberg notes that the price of a 10-kilogram (22-pound) box of Hass avocados — 530 pesos ($27.89) — is the highest amount it has ever been since prices started being documented nearly 20 years ago.