Colombia's main avocado season will start soon. By mid-April, fruit will be ready to be harvested and start making its way over to the U.S. market. "As of early May, we will start seeing it in stores," says Andrew Gomez with GreenFruit Avocados. "Our shipments will all arrive on the East Coast, in the Port of Miami due to a relatively short transit time from Colombia," he added. From there, fruit will mainly be distributed to retailers on the East Coast and should be available uninterruptedly until the end of the year.
Favorable weather
This season, the expectation is for Colombia's avocado volume to increase by 30 percent compared to last year. "It is a conservative estimate and as the season progresses, we will get a more realistic idea of the increase in production," Gomez said. The uptick in volume is driven by an increase in planted acreage, but weather conditions also play a role. The last two seasons, the country's avocado crop was impacted by a higher amount of rainfall than years prior. While that rainfall negatively affected yields these last two years, they had a positive impact on the development of the trees. "So far, 2024 has seen more sunshine. Sunny days in combination with healthy trees have resulted in ideal bloom conditions and strong supply to kick off the season."
In general, Colombia is a growing country of origin for avocados and many orchards are still in the process of becoming certified to export to the U.S. market. As more and more orchards have permission to export to the U.S., volume from Colombia is expected to continue growing.
Fruit to size up during season
At the start of the season, fruit is expected to be somewhat smaller in size. "It is common to see smaller fruit at the beginning of the season and we expect 70s and 84s to be leading at first." However, as the season progresses, the fruit will grow bigger and the larger sizes 60, 48 and 40 will be more widely available.
"With multiple growing regions supplying fruit to the U.S. market this summer, it's a great time to promote avocados," Gomez shared. Avocados are already being promoted for Easter, an important family-gathering holiday in the U.S. Soon after, the industry will see a significant uptick in demand for Cinco de Mayo, the second largest avocado holiday after Super Bowl. "Within a timeframe of about two to three weeks, retailers will push hard to sell more avocado volume." Heading into the summer months, demand in North America is expected to continue to be strong through August and Gomez foresees pricing to maintain healthy levels.
CPMA
The GreenFruit team is very excited for Colombia's new 2024 avocado season and will be ready to answer all your questions face-to-face at the upcoming CPMA tradeshow in Vancouver. Visit the team at booth #311.
For more information:
Andrew Gomez
GreenFruit Avocados
Tel: (+1) 949-251-0963
[email protected]
www.greenfruitavocados.com