Avocados shortage? US prices surge amid Mexican strike.

Following a strike by Mexican avocado pickers, weekly avocado volumes in the United States have dropped to five-year lows, according to the Hass Avocado Board.

|
Mariana Bazo/Reuters/File
A farm worker picks avocados from Hoja Redonda plantation in Chincha, Peru, in 2015.

American restaurants have scrambled in recent weeks to find enough avocados to meet customer demand, as supply shortages have sent prices soaring skyward.

Since the United States lifted a trade ban on Mexican avocados nearly two decades ago, popularity of the fatty fruit has grown dramatically, and Mexican growers have met that rising demand over time. But they have withheld the product in recent weeks amid negotiations for greater pay, pushing wholesale prices as high as four times their normal rates in some regions, as The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

"Right now, it's one of two countries supplying the world with avocados," said Dimitri Vardakastanis, who co-owns three grocery stores in the San Francisco area, where non-organic avocados have been selling for nearly $2 apiece.

As the Californian growing season tapers to an end each fall, the Mexican suppliers typically increase production to meet demand. Not so this year. In the final weeks of American production, imports from Mexico have dropped precipitously as well, according to the Hass Avocado Board, which reports weekly volumes by region.

The board reported a total volume of 12.1 million pounds, counting all regions of origin, the week of Oct. 16. That's down from 17.9 million pounds reported the week before. Figures for those two weeks are the lowest volumes reported at any point during the past five years.

A produce buyer in South Carolina warned restaurants in the region that prices could double to more than $100 per case, as The Post and Courier reported. Even so, Steve Palmer, the managing partner of The Indigo Road Restaurant Group in Charleston, S.C., said his restaurants would continue serving ripe avocados as long as possible.

"I would absorb the cost to the point it didn't make financial sense, and then of course edit the menu," Mr. Palmer told the paper.

Phil Henry, president of a growing and importing company in San Diego County, told the Chronicle that the Mexican growers' strike caused isolated halts in production.

"Most of the growers in Mexico have wanted to harvest, but it's been a small minority of growers that have wanted to exert this work stoppage," Mr. Henry said.

But the supply crisis could be nearing its end. Last week, the Avocado Producers and Exporting Packers Association of Mexico (APEAM) reported that more than 1,000 picking crews had returned to the fields after reaching an agreement mediated by the Michoacán State Government and the Mexican Department of Agriculture.

"The primarily issue revolved around sales negotiations between the growers and packers," APEAM said, emphasizing that the dispute fell outside of its purview.

Avi Crane, a former vice president of the California Avocado Commission, wrote that the strike resolution will most likely result in a short-term reduction in "FOB prices."

Over the long term, it could impact the balance of international avocado trade, he wrote, perhaps even prompting the US Department of Agriculture to "fast-track" applications for avocado market access from South Africa and Columbia.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Avocados shortage? US prices surge amid Mexican strike.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2016/1025/Avocados-shortage-US-prices-surge-amid-Mexican-strike
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe