With U.S. avocado volume surpassing a record 3 billion pounds in 2025, the fresh avocado industry is transitioning from rapid growth to a new era of market scale, presenting unprecedented opportunities for grower-packer-shippers, importers and marketers navigating a high-volume landscape.
Reaching that historic benchmark took more than just consumer appetite — it required cross-border coordination, strategic sourcing, forward-thinking category management, impactful marketing and more.
Driving this momentum are four standout leaders recognized in this year’s annual Packer 25 list of changemakers.
Emiliano Escobedo, Hass Avocado Board
As president and CEO of the Hass Avocado Board, Emiliano Escobedo has advanced agriculture and the fresh produce industry by driving demand, expanding research and market intelligence, and supporting the long-term viability of the U.S. avocado supply chain through leadership development and cross-industry collaboration.
When it comes to driving purchase frequency and sustaining this historic avocado volume, Escobedo says the industry must look past new customer acquisition to focus on daily habit-building.
“Nutrition, health and taste are the primary reasons consumers purchase avocados. The next growth engine is not finding new avocado buyers but turning occasional buyers into frequent buyers by making avocados an everyday food,” says Escobedo. “HAB is investing in nutrition research, including heart health and other emerging wellness areas, while developing marketing programs that reinforce the unique combination of taste, nutrition and versatility that makes avocados relevant every day.”
Strengthening the supply chain is equally critical to sustaining that momentum, which is why HAB and The Packer are hosting The Avocado Conference next month to bring key stakeholders together.
“Every segment of the supply chain is experiencing friction from rising costs, labor challenges, regulatory pressures, and evolving consumer expectations,” says Escobedo. “The Avocado Conference brings stakeholders together to seize shared opportunities, strengthen the links that make up our industry, and align around a common vision of making avocados America’s preferred healthy food for every meal.”
Manuel Michel, Colombia Avocado Board
Building on that strategy of frequency, Manuel Michel sees a dual opportunity in maximizing current avocado users while aggressively opening new runways for origin growth. As managing director of the Colombia Avocado Board, Michel brings 25 years of cross-functional experience in agriculture, marketing, and regulatory oversight to expand the footprint of Colombian hass in the U.S. market.
According to Michel, sustaining the category’s historic momentum requires a synchronized push across export channels, domestic expansion and alternative uses.
“We should also continue developing new markets and uses for available fruit,” he says. “In Colombia, for example, the avocado industry is working to grow export markets, increase domestic consumption of hass avocados and expand processing opportunities, including avocado oil.”
To turn that potential into year-round market share, Michel emphasizes that the broader supply chain must stay disciplined on the fundamentals.
“Across the produce industry, lasting demand growth will depend on reaching more households and giving existing customers more reasons to buy regularly,” Michel says. “I am optimistic about the potential for continued growth in avocado demand. Realizing that potential will require consistent quality, reliable supply and options that remain accessible to consumers.”
As one of the newer origins in the U.S. market, the Colombia Avocado Board is leveraging story-driven branding to help retailers connect with consumers. Through its Raised by Colombia campaign, the board aims to highlight the unique growing conditions, grower expertise and climate that set its fruit apart.
“Colombia is still one of the newer origins in the U.S. market, so we want to introduce more than a country name on a label,” says Michel. “The campaign highlights our growers, Colombia’s climate and landscape, and the care involved in bringing quality fruit to the U.S. market.”
Central to that identity is how the region’s natural environment and two annual harvest cycles shape crop development. Michel notes that the term “raised” reflects the dedicated, continuous care growers invest in their orchards throughout the year.
“Rainfall and Colombia’s tropical climate are important parts of that story,” Michel says. “What distinguishes the campaign is how Colombia’s growing conditions, together with the expertise and resilience of its growers, contribute to the quality and flavor of the fruit.”
Beyond brand storytelling, Colombia’s location offers strategic benefits for U.S. importers, particularly along the East Coast, says Michel. Ocean shipping routes allow fruit to reach Florida in roughly three days and the Philadelphia area in about five.
“These shorter transit times give importers and retailers flexibility to respond to changing needs and help Colombian avocados fit into supply programs alongside fruit from other origins,” says Michel.
Looking ahead, the board is focusing on building a more predictable and scalable supply chain infrastructure to support long-term regional growth.
“The next step is to continue making Colombia’s supply chain more predictable,” says Michel, pointing to efforts in volume forecasting, cold chain optimization and expanding port capacity. “The industry’s goal is to turn Colombia’s geographic advantage into dependable long-term programs for U.S. buyers, particularly regional retailers on the East Coast.”
Scott Bauwens, GreenFruit Avocados
Scott Bauwens, CEO of GreenFruit Avocados, is driving a next-generation model for the avocado industry by building out a vertically integrated supply chain across North and South America that unites growing, packing, shipping and ripening operations to deliver year-round sourcing and stronger alignment among growers, capital and customers.
Under his leadership, GreenFruit Avocados launched its “GreenFruit 2.0” era following an acquisition by industry veterans, uniting Simpatica’s California production with the Peruvian footprint of Tahuaycani and ACP Agro to establish a fully vertically integrated supply chain that empowers the company to rewrite how fruit moves from the orchard to the retail shelf.
According to Bauwens, this direct model bypasses the vulnerabilities baked into legacy global distribution networks, transforming the company’s cost structure and risk profile.
“The legacy model buys fruit. We own it. That is the core difference, and it changes everything downstream,” he says. “When you own the production, you are not paying a margin to someone else every time supply tightens. You are not the last to know when a crop comes in light or a harvest accelerates. You have the information first and you can act on it.”
This direct oversight solves one of the industry’s most persistent issues: excessive handoffs. While traditional supply chains often rely on a chain of intermediaries where fruit changes hands multiple times before reaching the trade, Bauwens notes that GreenFruit’s cross-border vertical integration removes those friction points entirely.
“What makes this different is that we are vertically integrated across all our origins, not just one,” he says. “Most of the industry is still buying from growers they barely know, moving fruit through multiple hands before it ever reaches the trade. We bring it directly from the source. That cuts cost, cuts time, and cuts the touch points where quality breaks down.”
While eliminating middleman handoffs streamlines the supply chain, Bauwens points to the “last mile” — specifically the ripening process — as the single biggest operational bottleneck facing the industry today.
“Ripening. It sounds simple, but it is where more value gets destroyed in this category than anywhere else,” says Bauwens. “An avocado that arrives at a store or a kitchen at the wrong stage of ripeness is a failed transaction, full stop. The consumer has a bad experience, the retailer takes a markdown, and nobody wins.”
The challenge is compounded by varying seasonalities and fruit characteristics across different growing regions. Without unified ripening standards, retailers end up with inconsistent quality depending on where the fruit originated — leading to higher spoilage rates and product rejections.
“Our goal is simple: the same quality, the same ripeness, the same eating experience, from whichever country of origin the customer prefers,” Bauwens says.
Dez Forsythe, Foodbuy
While upstream production and category marketing lay the groundwork for growth, maintaining momentum across a 3-billion-pound market requires deep operational resilience on the distribution side.
With over 17 years of experience, Dez Forsythe leads Foodbuy’s direct grower-shipper programs across fresh produce commodities — ranging from avocados to zucchini — by building trust-based, strategic partnerships between grower-shippers and regional distributors to drive continuity and value.
As avocados make their journey from foreign orchards and domestic groves to kitchens nation-wide, Forsythe emphasizes that the true engine of that success comes down to human connection rather than logistics alone.
“When our customers in New York, Tennessee or Texas enjoy an avocado, it’s easy to overlook the miracle of that supply chain,” she says. “Even today, though, that supply chain is successful because of people and relationships. Success comes from consistently delivering the right product, at the right quality, from the right source, despite ongoing market volatility. That requires trusted partnerships, not just purchase orders.”
And in an era defined by unpredictable weather, labor constraints and trade friction, Forsythe notes that the function of modern procurement has fundamentally shifted away from transactional haggling toward proactive risk management.
“Procurement’s role has evolved from negotiating price to fostering resilience. When weather events, labor disruptions, geopolitical challenges or trade issues arise, organizations with direct grower relationships can respond more quickly and effectively,” Forsythe says. “Rather than re-acting to shortages after they occur, they can collaborate to shift sourcing regions, adjust specifications, reallocate supply and communicate proactively with customers and end users. This level of engagement moves us from transactional and reactive to strategic and proactive, driving supply continuity, building customer confidence, and creating long-term value.”
