Several unrelated threads here led me to delve, this morning, into a question that has plagued mankind (okay, maybe just me) for at least 20 years now. Why are avocados so expensive? If you google that question, you find several hits where the question is asked much more pithily: "Why are avocados so damned expensive?" or...as is only natural in these coarse times we live in, "Why are avocados so effing expensive?"
It's a good question. And one I asked just today, after my wife returned from the market with 3 shriveled up little poor ass excuses for avocados that she sheepishly admitted that she'd paid $2 a piece for. I like guacamole as much as the next guy...and probably more so. But I refuse to pay $2 for one pathetic avocado.
"Why...back in my day, we only paid 25 cents a piece for avocados, and they were huge."
Yes...I know...that was 35 years ago. But it's, nonetheless, TRUE. All of which led me to search the interwebs for answers...What I found isn't really what I was looking for, but it was fascinating anyway...at least to me. Maybe you'll find it interesting as well.
Below the fold is everything you ever wanted to know about avocados, as the saying goes, but were afraid to ask. Or perhaps your mouth was just too full of guacamole to speak up. In Jeopardy form, I will pose the clue, and the answer follows in the form of a question.
See...my economic circumstances are such that I have severely cut back on my guacamole consumption...but Jeopardy I can still watch for free. Read the questions below, and uselessly click your mouse to answer first:
"On this day, American's eat enough guacamole to cover an entire football field 30 feet deep."
A: "What is Cinco de Mayo?" I'm, sorry...no. "What is Groundhog Day?"...Sorry, that puts you into negative territory. "What is Super Bowl Sunday?" That's right! And that's a lot of guacamole. Throw in Janet Jackson, with a wardrobe malfunction, and the Dallas Cheerleaders, and we're talking one helluva halftime show. Executives from Frito-Lay are working on it, don't you worry.
"'Avocado' is the Americanized version of the Spanish word "aguacate", which in turn comes from the Aztec word "ahuacatl", which is the same word they used for what part of the human anatomy?
A: "What are testicles?" Correct. The Aztecs believed that avocados were a potent food with respect to sexual prowess and fertility. So much so, that they kept their virgins indoors during harvest season. You can laugh...but my grandfather wouldn't allow my grandmother to walk in his garden while she was menstruating...he believed it could cause some of the vegetables to fall victim to blight. And after 9 kids, if he had even the slightest suspicion that anything in his garden might make her more fertile, he would have locked her in the basement from June until the end of August, and slid food trays under the door.
Actually, the word "avocado" was used as early as the 17th century in the British West Indies, but it wasn't until a 1915 meeting of American avocado growers convened in Los Angeles' Hotel Alexandria that they all settled upon that word to refer to the fruit.
"Avocado trees were first planted in the United States in this town."
A: "What is Santa Barbara." Santa Barbara and what is now Montecito. There are still avocado groves there. As well as vineyards. When people who don't live in California think of California, the image they conjure up is Santa Barbara. Or maybe Napa. But I'd put my money on Santa Barbara. It really is the most beautiful place in the state, which is an enormously subjective remark. But go there. Spend a long weekend there. And afterwards, you tell me.
Anyway, a man by the name of Judge R.B. Ord brought three avocado saplings back to his home in Santa Barbara from a trip to Mexico, back in 1871. From those humble beginnings California's commercial avocado industry took root. It now stretches north along the coast into Mendocino County, and southward to the border with Mexico, in San Diego County. 95% of all avocados grown in the US are grown in California, and most of those are now grown in San Diego County.
Florida grows a few, but it's not a big player. The avocado growers are concentrated in a relatively small geographical area, and have a relatively large political clout. Hence, the price of avocados...but I'll get there.
"This Mexican State is the largest global producer of avocados."
A: "What is Michoacan?" Yo heart Michoacan. The annual production in this Mexican state dwarfs California's, just as California's production dwarfs Florida's. Mexico produces 45% of the world's avocado production. They grow everywhere in Michoacan. The avocado ranks fifth in production on the list of Mexico's top commercial fruits. Like California, however, Mexico consumes the lion's share of avocados that it grows. Still, that leaves enough left over to make for a significant export product. California's growers have been fighting Mexican avocados, and the nightmare scenario (for them) of cheaper imported fruit for...well, forever.
"The high price of avocados is most directly attributed to these two things.
A: "What are property values and water." Trade protectionism contributes some as well, but as I'll explain, that is slowly diminishing. I'd like to blame it on the nefarious, shady "middle man", or unbridled greed...but actually, after much digging around, I've learned that avocados are truly one of those agricultural products that have high fixed costs for the growers, as well as some variable costs which affect the price at the grocery store.
Avocado groves are concentrated in some of California's most pricey real estate markets, between San Luis Obispo to the north and San Diego to the south. There is an opportunity cost associated with any land use decision, and while local tax codes may make variances, land is typically taxed based upon its highest potential use. Most avocado groves are located in prime exurban areas that have seen significant residential development over the past several decades.
Water. Avocado trees are very thirsty, and they require much more frequent and deep irrigation to produce good yields than many other tree crops. In some avocado groves, the cost of irrigation alone represents as much as 2/3's of the growers cost of production. In case you haven't noticed, much of the West has been in the throes of a multi-year drought, and water prices, even for agricultural users, have been rising steadily. On top of that, California's agricultural water supply has been slowly becoming more and more saline over the decades, which hurts it's farm output across just about every category you can name.
People living in these two states consume more avocados that the rest of the country combined.
A: "What are California and Texas." I couldn't find any stats on which state has the lowest per capita consumption, but if I had to guess I'd pick West Virginia. Avg annual consumption in the US is around 4 lbs per person, but that is obviously not spread evenly throughout the population.
3 years in the Pen, or a $10,000 fine
A: "What is the penalty for using sour cream when you make guacamole?" Hmmm. There are some guacamole purists who may advocate for such harsh measures, but actually the Jeopardy answer is "What's the penalty in California for "rustling" avocados?"
Yes, Virginia, there are avocado thieves, and the 4 weeks leading up to Super Bowl Sunday are typically the seasonal peak for avocado theft. Thieves stake out a grove, find an out of the way place to park their trucks, and in the course of a couple of hours they can steal thousands of dollars worth of fruit. It happens all the time. So much so, in fact, that avocado growers have, for agricultural producers, taken the surprising step of installing security video cameras around their groves. The Sheriff departments in California's major growing counties have dedicated "Guac Cops", who patrol the roads around groves looking for suspicious activity. The crime is taken seriously.
The NAFTA trade pact partially ended this.
A: "What was a complete ban on avocado imports from Mexico?" Yup...a ban that lasted almost 80 years. The "avocado issue", in fact, became one of the first items of dispute between the US and Mexico after the passage of NAFTA. California growers had convinced the government to ban importation back in the first decade of the last century, citing the threat to their crop posed by Mexican fruit flies that they claimed infested the fruit grown in Mexico. The threat was, according to most, highly exaggerated and based upon slender evidence. But the long standing ban allowed California growers unfettered control of the market, and propped up the price of the fruit for decades. Mexican avocados are still, if I'm not mistaken, banned from California, but allowed into the US market in other states during certain months. So the ban has still not been completely lifted.
This won't happen while the fruit is still on the tree.
A: "What is ripen." Avocados do not ripen until 7 to 10 days after they have been harvested, which is why most people place hard ones in a paper bag for a couple of days after bring them home from the store. And that's actually a very good thing for the growers...it means they can harvest avocados as they are needed, by and large, instead of having to throw a lot of labor at a huge crop that is maturing at one time, with a short picking window.
Avocados contain more of this than do bananas.
A: "What is potassium." They also have the highest protein content of any fruit. One avocado has about 300 calories, but the fat content is primarily of the healthy poly and monounsaturated type, so you can feel good about yourself as to dip that chip into the bowl of guacamole.
Mexican grown avocados, Water, Tomato, Onion, Sugar, Salt, Cilantro, Erythorbic Acid And/Or Ascorbic Acid, Citric Acid, Dehydrated Garlic, Sodium Alginate, Xanthan Gum, and Jalapeno Chili Powder.
A: "What are the ingredients in Taco Bell's 'guacamole'?" Ummmm, thanks, but I'll make my own.
So....what goes into yours?