Avocado prices hit a record high as Super Bowl Sunday approaches

Overview of avocados in the U.S. market, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Originally published on February 09, 2022.

Avocado prices in the U.S. market are hitting a record high in the days running up to the Super Bowl, the fruit’s biggest consumption day of the year.

A 20-pound box of Hass avocados from Mexico’s largest exporter to the US costs $6.29 more than it did during the same time period last year, according to Bloomberg estimates of US and Mexican agricultural market data.

Though the data series only goes back about 20 years, avocado prices have increased nearly eightfold in that time. Meanwhile, per capita consumption has doubled in the past decade, Bloomberg reported.

    Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

And unlike previous years, where a shortfall of supply drove avocado prices up, that is not the case now.

The record-breaking price tag is due to a combination of soaring production costs, labor shortages, and supply chain backlogs that have triggered price hikes across industries.

In January alone, Mexico sent more than 222 million pounds of avocados into the U.S., and the state of California harvested more than 8.8 million pounds, according to Produce News. Even with more than a quarter of a billion pounds of avocados on the market, keeping up with customer demand has been difficult.

The two most popular sizes of avocados are trading for nearly $60 per carton, and even the smaller varieties are over $40 a carton. Rob Wedin, the executive vice president of fresh sales for Calavo Growers Inc. in California, said these prices are a result of retailers stocking up their supply as the Super Bowl draws near.

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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