To borrow from Charles Dickens, when comparing the 2022 avocado marketing season with 2023: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

It also causes avocado marketers to look at potential root causes. The 2022 season saw record farm gate prices being paid to avocado growers, while 2023 saw below-average prices during a good portion of the season that were far lower than they have been in decades in relative terms, adjusting for inflation.

With a total U.S. import volume just shy of 2.5 billion pounds for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023, Avocados From Mexico eclipsed its previous high-water mark by more than 2 percent.

“This is very exciting for us as we broke our historical record,” AFM President Alvaro Luque announced to The Produce News. “And we believe we will break the record again this year (fiscal 2024, running from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.)”

As the avocado industry continues to boom in sales and pop culture, Fresh Avocados – Love One Today, a leading science-based resource founded by the Hass Avocado Board, celebrates its 10th anniversary with news of continued big strides in elevating positive awareness for the health benefits of avocados, a proven driver for stimulating demand in the U.S.

At the International Fresh Produce Association’s upcoming Foodservice Conference in Monterey, CA, Mission Produce Inc. plans to educate others on the value avocados bring to menus and the art of ripening fruit to the right stage for the recipe.

GLC Cerritos LLC, Jalisco’s leading avocado grower-shipper, has named Giovanni Cavaletto as president of its U.S. division.  Establishing the U.S. division and hiring Cavaletto is part of a strategic initiative to enhance service, communication and alignment with its U.S. customer base.

Shipments of avocados from Mexico have declined significantly in the past month and are also skewing heavily toward small sizes creating a two-tiered market with small sizes declining in price and large fruit demand exceeding supply.