Avocados are nearly ubiquitous in American society, and as demand grows, they are available in both fast food and upscale restaurants. The USDA reports that U.S. avocado consumption has more than tripled since 2001.
The seeds of this growth have taken root in Mexico.
The USDA reports that about 90% of the avocados consumed in the United States come from Mexico, with imports expected to total $2.7 billion in 2024.
According to the California Avocado Commission, avocado production in the United States is concentrated in California, accounting for about 90% of domestic production. That leaves Hawaii and Florida. But California’s industry can only meet a fraction of the massive demand.
“We’re just a tiny player in a big picture right now,” said Mary Lu Arpaia, extension specialist in subtropical horticulture at the University of California, Riverside.
Avocado production in California peaked in the early 2000s, and since then both production area and output have declined. according to Give to CAC.
“The cost of production in California is very, very high,” Appaya said. “We have resource constraints in terms of water supply and water quality…Real estate is very expensive.”
The problem isn’t unique to avocados: U.S. agricultural production overall has been shrinking. U.S. Department of Agriculture Report For the first time in history, imports exceeded exports.
“Mexico has almost always been an efficient, low-cost producer,” said Richard Sexton, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis.
More than 80% of Mexico’s avocados are exported to the United States, and the industry is still growing. In 2022, Jalisco became the second Mexican state to meet certain requirements, allowing it to trade avocados with the United States, opening up more opportunities for other farms and more fruit to flood the market.
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