After years of not being allowed in the American market, Mexican avocado have rapidly and surprisingly gained ground in the United States market.
This Mexican fruit has reached record levels of daily consumption and reaches its peak at the Superbowl party each year.
The Metlife Stadium in New Jersey, where the 2014 final was held could be covered, from end zone to end zone, with a 12-meter deep avocado carpet.
Achieving this would require 47,200 tons of avocados; the exact amount that is consumed in the United States during the most watched sporting event in the country said Eduardo Serena, marketing director of the Association of Producers, Packers and Exporters of Avocado from Michoacán (APEAM).
Mexico, the largest exporter in the world of this fruit, exported 512,134 tons of avocados to the United States in the 2013-2014 season.
According to Serena, that figure is a record as Mexico exceeded the half a million tons in avocado exports to the United States for the first time.
Before 1997, Mexican avocado faced prohibitions driven by California avocado growers who falsely claimed the Mexican fruits had pests that could affect the market.
Serena recalled that the APEAM had 60 producers in the export program when avocado exports to the United States began in the 1997-1998 season.
Today, in the 2013-14 season there are 11,202 producers in a rising phenomenon that creates countless jobs in Mexico and in the United States.
Similarly, there were only 61 accredited orchards in 1997 and last season there were 16,891 certified orchards, he said.
The export route, which is predominantly by land, used to send avocados to the United States has been perfected in such a way that the product can be sent to Texas in 48 hours.
The avocados can be harvested, selected and packaged on Monday and placed in trucks so that they are ready to be delivered to the supermarkets on Wednesday, he said.
There have been tests to transport the avocados by water from Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, to Los Angeles, and by Coatzacoalcos to Philadelphia, he said.
Currently, however, most of the avocado is transported by land, as it's cheaper. Only in Mexico, this generates more than 300,000 jobs in different sectors, he said.
Serena clarified that 27 certified municipalities in Michoacan, which met all the required phytosanitary measures, generated the entire production that was exported.
84 percent of all exports go to the United States, said Serena.
In 1997 the entry of Mexican avocados was allowed only for the northeast region of the U.S., and they were not allowed into California, Texas or Hawaii.
Years later, this limitation would strengthen Mexico because the country was able to start by positioning itself as the number one in sales in the Northeast region of the United States, he said.
Once the restriction was lifted in California in 2007, the Mexican avocado continued a process that was unavoidable and became the leading product in a few years, he said.
Thus, the Mexican avocado is the flagship product of the United States as it is gaining more and more followers.
The fruit is like gold when it reaches the supermarket shelves in Los Angeles, where a medium-sized avocado costs between $1.50 and $2 dollars per piece, a price that consumers are more than willing to pay.
Mexico is already exploring other alternative new markets such as Hong Kong, Japan and other regions, Serena emphasized with pride.
Recently the Discovery Channel made a documentary, which was widespread in the world, about the path that the Mexican avocados take to reach American tables.
Source: noticieros televisa