California wrapping up strong season

"It's been a mixed bag," is how Dana Thomas, president of Index Fresh Inc., Riverside, Calif., characterized the 2016 California avocado season as the deal entered its waning weeks.

When the season kicked off early this year, supplies were ample, product was available from California and Mexico, and retail prices were fairly low.

"From a customer's perspective, the beginning of the season was good for building demand and moving volume," he said.

That all changed in May.

"The price climbed as Mexico volume dropped off," he said.

That meant prices to California growers went up, he said, "which made the retails go up, which slowed velocity."

The situation was improving in late July.

"Prices should come back to levels where retails will be more conducive to moving volume and promoting," he said. "Growers are diligently working to fill demand."

A positive development for the industry that resulted from the low retail prices from last August to April was that, "the demand for avocados took a big jump, and we got into a lot of consumers we weren't into before," he said.

Henry Avocado Corp., Escondido, Calif., tries to spread the harvest over the entire season for the health of the trees and to ensure as good a fruit set as possible for next year, said president Phil Henry.

Prices were below projections until mid-May, he said, but significantly higher than projections after that time.

"The second half of the harvest has made up for the lower prices in the first half," he said. "We have a lot of growers who will end up doing pretty well."

That's good news, he said, "given the fact that we're still in a drought."

Giumarra Agricom International, Escondido, Calif., sources most of its avocados from California and Mexico, said Gary Caloroso, marketing director.

"California avocados had excellent quality this year, again," he said.

California growers aren't bothered when fruit is imported from other growing areas, he added.

"Consumer demand continues to increase," Caloroso said, "so for us, it's really just meeting the demand."

Most of California's avocados are already spoken for anyway through program business with specific buyers, he said.

The California crop was short of the 395 million pound originally projected in part because some unseasonable warm weather and winds that took out part of the volume in early summer, said Robb Bertels, vice president of sales and marketing for Mission Produce Inc., Oxnard, Calif.

Temperatures reached a virtually unheard-of 110 degrees in Ventura County, he said. Average summer temperatures in the county are in the low 70s.

Some trees lost foliage, exposing avocados to the sun, which caused fruit drop, he said.

Avocados are not marketable once they hit the ground.

Sizing also was off somewhat, which affected pound volume.

On the plus side, for the fruit that was available, "California's quality has been really good this season," Bertels said.

By the end of the California November to October avocado crop year, the Irvine-based California Avocado Commission expects 392 million pounds of avocados to be harvested - about 40% more than last year.

"Part of the change is due to the alternate-bearing nature of the California avocado crop tempered by Mother Nature's challenges of the drought and a couple of periods of extremely high temperatures," said Jan DeLyser, vice president of marketing.

California's 2016 crop should be 90% harvested by mid-August, said Rob Wedin, vice president of sales and marketing for Calavo Growers Inc., Santa Paula, Calif.

Light volume is expected into September, he said, with a more significant drop off by October.

Despite the low prices early in the season, growers were able to take advantage of strong pricing later for about 60% of their crop, he said.

Overall this season, "It's been positive," he said.