Florida grapefruit has seen better days, but what is next?
The avocado has become what the grapefruit once was, and vice versa.
In fact, in the 1970s, grapefruit was more popular than avocado is today.
In 1976, the retail per-capita availability of grapefruit was 9.3 pounds. At the time, the avocado per-capita consumption barely moved the needle, at 1.1 pounds per person at retail.
Perhaps more than any two commodities, avocados and grapefruit have seen reversals of fortune since the days when President Gerald Ford occupied the White House.
An explosion of imports from Mexico, starting in the late 1990s and continuing until today, has fueled a spike in annual fresh avocado retail availability from 1 pound per person in the late 1970s to 8 pounds per person in 2019.
Grapefruit, on the other hand, saw its availability drop slide from more than 9 pounds per person in 1976 to just 1.5 pounds per person in 2020, according to the USDA.
While the avocado's success has been well documented in recent years, what happened to cause such a fateful drop in grapefruit purchases? And is there still hope for a rebound?
The Packer's Tom Karst recently conducted a series of interviews with Florida fresh market shippers and industry experts, who reflected on the difficult road faced by growers in the past and what better days may lie around the bend. Click the related links below to learn more.
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