Your Avocado Toast Habit Is About to Get Cheaper
Avocado-lovers received some bad news earlier this year — their favorite fruit was going to cost them more money as the market rate reached record highs. A Bloomberg report warned that a combination of growing demand and a smaller crop would make the price of avocado steeper than usual in 2017, and it did. At the time, the going rate for a box of avocados was double that of last year, reaching a 19-year high. Oof.
But things might be turning around because there are signs showing the prices are going down. (Sound the alarms! Play the trumpets!) According to a new report from Bloomberg, “the wholesale cost has dropped more than 6 percent from a record reached earlier in July.”
What does that mean for the consumer? It translates to roughly $1.51 per Hass avocado. It’s cheaper than prices seen earlier in the summer, but it is still 40 percent higher than the going rate last year, as per data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Prices in the foreseeable future will stabilize a little, and you won’t see a sharp incline,” Robert Bonghi, the director of procurement and pricing at the Produce Alliance, tells Bloomberg. “Growers are trying to put more trees in the ground to keep up.”
There’s certainly a small decline in prices, but don’t expect to see the fruit at your local market for super cheap, either. “You’re not going to see 10 avocados for a dollar,” Bonghi says.
Consumption of avocados has doubled over the past decade, which is one of the reasons behind the spiking prices this year. Fortunately, 2018 will come with larger crops of the fruit so you won’t be left feeling avocado insecurity. This means prices of healthy fruit will be lower than this calendar year and you can consume all the avocado your heart desires and your wallet can handle.