Market Insights – 2019
2019 was an interesting year for the avocado industry in the United States, but then again what year hasn’t been interesting on our incredible journey over the past 15 years.
Overall volume never materialized to the levels that industry participants thought that it would, but there is no doubt in everyone’s mind that the industry is on its way to a 3 billion pound year, somewhere in the very near future.
2019 total volume topped out at 2,494,000,000 pounds, as volume was down by more than 3% against early year projections. Shorter crops in most producing areas were to blame for the missed projections, and certainly not too lack of consumer demand, that continues to drive the category.
With this lack of supply growth, the per capita consumption (PCC) also flattened and was on par with the 2018 PCC of 7.6 pounds per capita. Retail dollars per capita inched up to $18.97 up slightly from 2018, but again volume, PCC and per capita dollars all remained relatively flat due to supply constrictions for fruit coming to the U.S.
While supply remained even, small changes in regional sales levels and method of selling continues to generate interesting changes to the marketplace, as well as becoming opportunities for the sellers of our products to drive consumption and get the market ready for increasing volumes that are poised to reach the market.
In regional sales, it is interesting to note that the Southeast, the Mid-South, and the Northeast had the greatest percentage increases in pounds per capita consumption over the past three years, outpacing more mature markets like the West and California. Increasing PCC in these less mature markets is going to be key when the larger crops do come along, and it seems that the industry is doing well to develop these markets as we move forward.
Another amazing factor we see and have seen over the past 5 years is the phenomenal growth for bagged avocados in the marketplace. Bagged fruit, oftentimes using small and possibly hard or unmarketable fruit has surged in sales, and now accounts for at least 25% of the sales at retail in the U.S. HAB intends to do a deep dive into this changing part of the category so sellers have data and stories to deliver to retailers about how complimentary and non- cannibalizing these sales are to current consumers and sales.
The marketplace for avocados in the United States continues to grow, mature and change in interesting and sometimes complex ways. You can always count on HAB to provide the independent data, the research and the insights to help keep your avocado business strong and vibrant in our collective effort to make avocados America’s most popular fruit.
Please continue to utilize HassAvocadoBoard.com to find the data and information you need to make critical decisions for your business.
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