Avocado industry gearing up for Cinco de Mayo; good traffic expected

Overview of the avocados in U.S. market previous weeks to Cinco de Mayo, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Original published on April 23, 2020.

Avocados in the United States are currently coming out of California and Mexico. Just like many other fresh produce products, avocados have experienced some ups and downs in demand in the past few weeks, but the market looks to be stabilizing now and the industry is gearing up for Cinco de Mayo.

Working to create and maintain balance in market

The avocado demand saw some highs and lows since the outbreak of the pandemic. “The numbers right now are reasonably low, given the circumstances of the situation. The market has been volatile for every commodity, and avocados aren’t an exception. We are working to try to create a balance between the supply and the demand. We’ve just about reached that point now, so now we have to maintain that,” Chirico says.

The unsettled market has three main causes, Chirico explains. “First, we had the sudden drop-off of the foodservice business, which then led to an oversupply in the market. Now we’re in the next phase and the market is somewhat undersupplied. This is mostly because the harvest was slowed before and during Holy Week in Mexico. Now we’re working on getting in the supplies according to the demand- everyone is working on moving their inventories and getting everything in line. We’re close to balancing the market again, and we’re building to servicing retail in a responsible manner.”

Fortunately, the company hasn’t faced any issues with importing their products from Mexico. “There are generally less stringent restrictions on the Mexican border COVID-19 there, so we haven’t had issues with the movement of the product. The only challenge we’re seeing now is getting the product out of the field fast enough,” Chirico says.

A good Cinco de Mayo market expected

Even though there are still many rules in place with regard to gatherings and social distancing, Chirico is expecting a good Cinco de Mayo, which is always one of the major avocado-consumption days of the year. “People can’t go to restaurants, but they can still celebrate at home. We’re all looking for excuses to do something fun nowadays, so we’re expecting a good Cinco de Mayo and we’re expecting that retailers will be running ads for it and we’ve already booked quite a few of them. Consumers will be purchasing the products they need to celebrate, and avocados are a central ingredient for a fiesta at home,” Chirico concludes.

While they are known for their avocados, McDaniel & Chirico Worldwide has recently expanded and begun working with a variety of products. They now also offer limes, lemons and mangos.

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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