The supply of avocados is keeping up with demand at the moment. "Actually because of slow sales for the Memorial Day holiday, we've got a little bit more supply on hand," says David Billings of Stonehill Produce Inc.
He notes that there's been a rolling surplus of avocados that dates back about three weeks. "Mexico was slow to adjust their flow and at the same time, Columbia started coming in much stronger than we expected," he says. Add to that the fact that California was on a good pace with its supply given California avocado growers have targeted this period to come on with peak supply. That said, expect ample California supplies through mid-July and then a tapering pattern through August and into September," says Billings.
In turn, this has been a boon for the industry given this is the time of year that Mexico, which has run through the major portion of its crop, moves into higher elevation harvesting, and supply from here until August can be volatile at times. "That means there's the opportunity for producers to raise prices, so the industry anticipated that somewhat and got Colombia and California involved much heavier than normal," says Billings.
Peruvian fruit available
At the same time, Peru has also begun shipping fruit, which will continue to increase throughout June. "In all, we have ample supply on hand so we're somewhat cruising at the moment," he says.
On demand, well-known promotional events around avocados include the Super Bowl and Cinco de Mayo of course. The next one coming up is the July 4th holiday. However other events such as New Year's are also increasingly becoming stronger promotional events for avocados–likely linked to the health halo associated with the fruit. In turn, that leads into the Super Bowl deal, which saw good movement this year, and then demand tends to stay relatively strong after that.
As for pricing, this year has seen higher prices on avocados which has reduced the promotability of the fruit somewhat.
Looking ahead at the July 4th holiday, there could be more offshore fruit in the market at that time and Mexico will also still supply avocados. "Right now Mexico is less than 50 percent of the inventory and by then, they'll likely stay around 40-45 percent of the inventory," says Billings. "There could be promotional opportunities available but they may favor the offshore fruit given we'll have a lot more Peruvian fruit to market."
For more information:
David Billings
Stonehill Produce Inc.
Tel: +1 (949) 488-9613
[email protected]
www.stonehillproduce.com