The countries driving the increase in global avocado consumption
As the global avocado industry recovers from a challenging year due to the El Niño phenomenon, we spoke with Zac Bard, chairman of the World Avocado Organization (WAO), about the current state of the global industry and what markets are becoming more attractive for growers.
Bard said that the change in weather patterns last year affected nearly 90% of avocado-growing regions worldwide. However, he believes the avocado crop handled the weather better than other crops, showing more resilience.
“With Peru’s season being done, we are fortunate that South Africa got a record crop this year, and other parts of Africa got a very good crop, so they will balance each other out,” said Bard…
According to WAO, the consistent increase in avocado consumption is expected to continue, with the Asian market seeing a new era of avocado consumers.
“What we see now is that the U.S. is still the largest consumer market, with around 1.3 million metric tons, then Europe just under 900 thousand metric tons, followed by second-tier markets like Japan, China, and Canada,” said Bard….
Bard said they also expect consumption in Europe to increase, mainly towards Scandinavian countries.
“We have also seen very good growth in the UK in the last year, and Italy, which comes from a low base, is also consuming a significant volume of avocados,” said Bard. “Additionally, the whole of Eastern Europe should start to come alive, and just by looking at social media posts, we can see that a lot of people are talking about avocados.”
To read the full article, please visit The countries driving the increase in global avocado consumption (freshfruitportal.com). Published on July 30, 2024.