Warm weather and a lack of water have contributed to a year in which the avocado season in California has consistently been ahead of schedule. With the season winding down, the next few weeks will see the state's growers finish harvesting the majority of this year's crop.“The season usually ends around the end of September, but things have been going ahead of schedule,” said Dave Fausset of Mission Produce. “We have about four to six more weeks left, but in four weeks the incoming inventory will be half of what's coming in right now.” He pointed to warm, dry weather as factors in the accelerated nature of this year's season. The lack of water the state's growers have contended with this season has also been a factor in the volume of fruit picked this year. While early estimates put this year's crop in the region of 300 million pounds, Fausset believes this year's haul will be less than that.
“I think this year's volume will come in somewhere around 280 million pounds or 290 million pounds,” he said. “I think a lack of water contributed to that, since we didn't get much rain, and some people also cut down acreage because of the drought.” While there was less fruit harvested this year, prices remained about the same as they were last year.
“I think the increased presence of fruit from Peru has had an impact on pricing,” said Fausset. “It's still been a good year, but the presence of fruit from Peru meant there were avocados to fill in any gaps here, so prices were the same as last year even though there was less fruit picked.”
For more information:
Dave Fausset
Mission Produce
+1 800 549 3420