The Affection for Avocados

CA: you call that an avocado?

It was only after moving to the Mainland that I fully appreciated Hawaii's home-grown fruits. Relatives and friends grew mangos, papayas, bananas, lychee, and avocados, all of which I received fully ripe (and free, of course).

California supermarkets carry these items, usually imported from the Philippines and Mexico, but they're half the size and picked for transport before they're ripe.

BTW, it's illegal to hand-carry fresh produce on flights from Hawaii to California in order to prevent the spread of fruit flies.

Hawaii: now that's an avocado.

Of all these tropical fruits, it was the avocado that has exploded in popularity. The reasons are free trade with Mexico and ripening technology.

We have developed such a voracious appetite for this versatile fruit that the U.S. now annually brings in nearly 3 billion pounds of avocados. In fact, 90% of the avocados that Americans eat are imported—and close to 90% of those imports come from Mexico.

It’s hard to remember a time when their availability was so limited that avocados were more like a luxury item. Except that time wasn’t very long ago.

They were only allowed into the country from Mexico in 1997. They weren’t accessible across the country until 2007. Now they are beloved everywhere in America—and not just because they are healthy and delicious.

“The success of the avocado industry is rooted in our trade relationship with Mexico,” said David Ortega, a Michigan State University professor of food economics and policy...

Now a professor at the University of California, Riverside, [Mary Lu Arpaia] started her career there in 1983, when unripe avocados sold in grocery stores felt like baseballs. But it was around that time when avocado researchers became obsessed with an idea that would revolutionize their industry: ripening.

To increase awareness, demand and sales, avocado growers realized they had to give consumers a product they actually wanted, something just firm enough to buy in the morning and eat for dinner that night.

Basically, avocados had to be more like bananas.

It was a simple insight that would change the industry forever. Through a series of experiments, researchers figured out how to improve ventilation on pallets of ripening avocados.

As soon as Americans were able to grab softer avocados in a grocery store, they began filling their shopping carts with them. These days, you can feel a bunch of plump avocados and pick the ones that are immediately ready to be smashed into guacamole. But that’s only possible because of all that ripening progress.

“It laid the foundation for this avocado renaissance,” Arpaia said.

To home consumers the imposition of a 25% tariff on a $9 package of six (6) avocados to $11.25 won't reduce purchases much but it will definitely affect restaurants where guacamole and avocado toast enjoy high margins.

Avocados, like eggs, are not as important to the economy as gasoline or electricity but are of symbolic importance. The majority of Americans will probably allow the Trump Administration some time to work through new tariff and trade arrangements, but the trick will be in ascertaining when patience will run out.