February 6, 2009

Sponsored by:

West Pak
Avocado Inc.

Availability

California Avocados

Market Snapshot*

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was not yet quoting prices for California avocados. Prices of two-layer cartons of imported hass avocados were as follows:

Chile: Size 32s, $26.25-29.25; 50s, $27.25-29.25; 84s, $19.25-20.25.

Mexico: Size 32s, mostly $25.25; 48s, mostly $23.25; 84s, $17.25-18.25.

* Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, Feb. 4.

The Shipping Scene

Light shipments of California avocados now are under way, but peak season still is a few months away. Overall volume will be down significantly from last year, though grower-shippers say quality should be excellent.

"It's going to be a very light, challenging crop in California this year," said Randy Shoup, president of West Pak Avocado Inc. in Temecula.

Periods of excessively high temperatures occurred three different times during the blooming and flowering period last year, he said. The unsettled conditions formed as trees were in the recovery process from a freeze the previous year.

Because of major temperature swings, Shoup said, "We had a great bloom, but the fruit did not set."

West Pak has been picking California avocados two or three days a week for about four weeks, and that pattern is expected to continue into mid-March, when picking will ramp up to four or five days a week, Shoup said.

Shoup expects West Pak to maintain or increase market share, despite the light crop.

California growers at this time are going into their orchards and taking out the fruit that weighs 8 ounces or more and leaving the smaller fruit to size up, he said.

The smaller crop size has not had a negative effect on quality.

"California quality is going to be good," he said, both internally and externally.

"We're going to have (a lot of) good-appearing fruit," he said, "we're just not going to have a lot of fruit for a long period of time."

Normally, tight supplies of California avocados coupled with light Chilean volume would result in price spikes, Shoup said. But Mexico has produced so much fruit this year that growers there have been able to fill the gap in the U.S. and blunt potential price surges.

Prices could get bumped up when the Chilean deal winds down in four to six weeks, he said, but then, "The economy will be another factor."

At Del Rey Avocado Co. Inc. in Fallbrook, partner Bob Lucy said, "Very little is being harvested right now."

Some bacon, reed, pinkerton and zutano varieties and "a very few" fuertes are being picked, he said, but the popular hass variety makes up 90% of the crop.

Growers are picking fruit from heavy branches and from young trees with good-sized avocados as they wait for Chilean volume to wind down, he said.

He expected the harvest to increase by mid-February to April, with major picking under way from May through August.

Supplies from Mexico should wind down in May and June, he said.

California's avocados are of excellent quality this year, he said, with high oil content.

Volume at Del Rey Avocado is expected to be down this season, but it should remain above the industry average, Lucy said.

Eco-Farm Corp. in Temecula is shipping limited volume of organic avocados, said president Steve Taft.

Movement is better on organic fruit than conventional, he said.

Size of the organic avocados varies from grower to grower, with some orchards already producing large sizes, while others still have small-sized fruit, he said.

Taft expected organic volume to pick up by late March, with peak volume shipping from April through August.

Growers are able to get "decent prices" for the fruit that is available, and California organic avocados are fetching a slight premium on certain sizes -- like 48s -- he said.

California avocado volume for 2008-09 has been estimated at 210.1 million pounds, a significant decrease from the 327 million pounds produced in 2007-08, according to the Irvine-based California Avocado Commission.

California fruit is available now through October, said Jan DeLyser, marketing director, but the commission's marketing efforts will focus on the late April (in time for Cinco de Mayo) through Labor Day timeframe.

(By Tom Burfield, Western correspondent for The Packer. The Packer and Red Book Credit Services are part of food360º, a division of Vance Publishing Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill.)

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