The popularity of avocados in the United States and Europe is one of the elements that has helped increase its price in Mexico by up to 100 percent in April, compared to the same month of 2016.
Avocado prices in Mexico have increased to 90 pesos per kilo in some self-service stores, according to a tour of El Financiero.
Prices have also increased in the United States as a pound of avocado was traded in April for up to two dollars, a level that is expected to remain until fall when Mexico's harvest begins. In April 2016, an avocado was priced at less than a dollar.
The rise in prices is due to the increase in consumption in different markets, such as the United States, Europe, and China, according to analysts consulted by Bloomberg and the Euromonitor International agency, as well as other factors, such as the heatwave in California that damaged crops last year.
Avocado per capita consumption in the United States stands at nearly three kilograms per year, while per capita consumption in the European Union has doubled in the last six years to 0.75 kilos per year, according to a report from Euromonitor based on Rabobank data.
Analysts of the agribusiness bank believe that prices in high ranges of avocado will remain high at an international level.
"Avocado prices remain high because shipments from California and Mexico are relatively low (...) We expect shipments will continue to be small and prices high," stated the Dutch bank's most recent report on food and agribusiness in North America.
Bad weather in Mexico
Prices have increased because of the fruit's growing popularity and the country's current low production, which is due to the bad weather there's been in recent months and the end of the peak season, according to Ignacio Gomez of the Association of Producers Exporters of Avocado from Jalisco (Apeajal).
"The avocado ended sooner than we expected and we enter this low production cycle so there is very little supply of product, which is mainly sent to the national market and some is for export. There is very little supply and this makes increases the product's price," said Gomez.
Julio Rodriguez, the director of operations of Comercial Agrícola la Viña, said China was a very appealing market because of the potential demand.
Source: elfinanciero.com.mx