Avocado is already an essential commodity for the hospitality sector

Global demand for avocados is growing, something that is reflected in its prices, which have been increasing for months. 

"At the moment there is a lot of demand and the supply of Peru's medium gauges 18, 20 and 22 is significantly lower than last year, as they have had rain problems and have also sent more fruit of these calibers to Asia, a market that is becoming more and more interesting for Peruvian exporters," stated Sigfrido Molina, manager of Sigfrido SLU. 

Peru also sends large quantities of avocados to the United States, so the supply in Europe is more limited. "It is the only origin from which we can import in these moments, as the Mexican avocado is very expensive."

According to Sigfrido, the arrival of Chile, which comes a month and a half earlier this year, will regulate the supply. "Chile's avocado is coming much earlier into the market this year and it will be a major player in the European market that will help regulate the supply."

The Spanish avocado campaign will begin at the end of September with the green skin varieties, such as the Bacon variety, to later give way to the star variety, the Hass variety. 

Avocado is already an essential commodity for hospitality sector

The highest demand for avocado in Spain is located in the coastal areas, as most of the hospitality sector is concentrated there, although Madrid also demands a lot of avocado. 

According to Sigfrido, the increase in avocado consumption has been very noticeable in the hospitality channel, "where it has gone from being an exotic product to a staple product, basic in their shopping lists. There are more and more dishes with avocado and we are noticing that."

The producer and exporter also highlighted the growth in demand for Ready to Eat avocados. "Consumers no longer want to wait until the fruit is ripe to eat it. They increasingly ask us more to give them a product with the guarantee that they can use it for consumption at the time of purchase." 

New leading facilities to supply more product

Last week, Sigfrido Molina signed the lease for the land in which they will be implement their own new facilities, in the Costa del Sol Axarquía Tecnoalimentario Park.

"Next week we will lay the first stone of the 2,800 square meter facility, which will have state-of-the-art Maf Roda gauges that will allow us to satisfy all the demand we have for subtropical products, such as mango and avocado, and continue to grow," he said. 

The company has already experienced a 35% turnover increase last year and this year it expects to grow by around 20%. Recently, it has acquired a new 10 hectares farm to produce avocados. 

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