In marketing year (MY) 2022/23, Post estimates that avocado production will decrease by 18.2 percent from MY 2021/22, totaling 180,000 metric tons (MT) due to frost. Chilean domestic avocado consumption will reach 105,000 MT in MY 2022/23, a five percent increase over MY 2021/22. In spite of a slightly tighter market, avocado prices remain relatively steady at around $4.00 per kilogram. The top export destinations for Chilean avocado are the Netherlands, Argentina, and the United Kingdom. During the offseason, between March to June, the top supplier of avocado to Chile is Peru.
Production
In MY 2022/23, from July 2022 to June 2023, Post estimates that avocado production will total 180,000 MT, an 18.2 percent decrease from MY 2021/22. This decrease is attributed to frost in the production
area at the beginning of the marketing year. In MY 2021/22, Chile produced 220,000 MT of avocado, a 57 percent increase over MY 2020/21. This increase was attributed to favorable climatic conditions and a successful setting of the fruit.
Chilean avocado area planted reached 32,363 hectares (ha) in calendar year (CY) 2021 (Figure 1). The Valparaíso region is the main avocado production region with 20,318 hectares planted, representing
62.8 percent of total avocado area. Avocado area planted in the Valparaíso region grew by 6.2 percent between 2017 and 2020 (Table 1). The Metropolitan, Coquimbo, and O’Higgins regions also hold
important shares of the avocado area. However, the avocado area planted in the Metropolitana region decreased by 5.9 percent because other crops like cherries, walnuts, citrus and olives are more profitable
and less demanding of scarce water for irrigation. In the O’Higgins region area planted grew by 167.9 percent, totaling 3,631 hectares. Post does not expect large shifts in area planted and estimates total area to reach 33,000 hectares in MY 2022/23 since the increase in the O’Higgins region will be offset by a decrease in the Metropolitana region.