Health and guacamole drives sales
Avocados considered commodity for Sweden
"There are two factors driving increased avocado consumption. The first is healthy eating trends on social media, in addition to articles. It has become a big influence and is inspiring people to eat more avocados. The second thing is that Mexican tacos are a very popular dish here and most people are making their own guacamole to go with them."
The current market is doing well, with increased demand, despite record high prices. The quality coming in is good, however, there is concern that some suppliers might try to benefit from the current shortage by harvesting the fruit too soon for the opportunity to earn more money. However, the buyer for a major supermarket in Sweden said that he is confident with their suppliers and with current quality he has received.
"Sweden is a very developed market and avocados are seen as a commodity. There is however a concern that as its global popularity increases, we could start seeing major shortages if other, larger markets start consuming the same amount per capita."
The supermarket primarily sells the Hass variety as a conventional fruit, but sometimes needs to switch over to some green skinned varieties to help fill gaps in organic supply so they can cover the 52 weeks in a year. A few tropical varieties such as Semil are available to the market, but a lack of social certificates often stands in the way of them making it to supermarket shelves.
The Swedish market mainly requests size 24 for loose sale, because it is easy to promote at attractive prices. The majority of sales are in size 22 and 24 because these are historically the sizes that the end consumers are well acquainted with.