In the last four weeks avocado prices in Mexico city have reached record levels of up to five dollars per kilo. Previously they cost less than two dollars.
In the rest of the country, prices have also had a similar increase, according to the data recorded by the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics, which performs daily monitoring of various products; including avocado prices.
According to the Secretary of Economy, Ildefonso Guajardo, one of the main reasons prices were high was the high demand for avocados in the United States. The neighboring country has a strengthened currency with which it can buy more.
"Avocado has a high international demand and exports, unfortunately this is affecting the conditions of the domestic market", said Guajardo.
Eight out of ten avocados consumed in the US come from Mexico, specifically from the region of Michoacan region (West), according to official information based on data from the Association of Producers and Packers and Exporters of Avocado.
This means that Mexico, which produced nearly one million tons of avocado in the 2015-2016 production season, shipped 850,000 tons of this fruit to the United States in said season. According to Infohass, a site specializing on avocados, avocado prices in the US market went from 36 dollars per box to 56 dollars in the last 20 days.
The revaluation of the Mexican product has caused mixed reactions. Producers are stumped. On July 4, producers took over the facilities of the APEAM and of Michoacan's sanitary control in protest because they were not being benefited by the avocado's bonanza as, according to them, 41 traders or intermediary companies were staying with most of the profits.
"We want an egalitarian relationship," they shouted for hours and then returned to production: there is no time to lose in this streak.
The Ministry of Economy has stated that avocado prices should stabilize in about a month when the demand in the US decreases and because of other factors, such as a winter storm that affected crops earlier this year, and the decreased production by seasonal change. They also said they expected avocado prices would stabilize in about a month.
Source: laopinion.com