June avocado sales up 23%
Lower volume didn’t prevent U.S. retail sales of hass avocados from surging sharply higher in June compared with year-ago levels.
For the four-week period ending June 11, the Hass Avocado Board said that U.S. volume of hass avocados sold in June was off 5%.1, but prices were nearly 30% higher than June 2016. That allowed sales to rise by 22.6%, according to a news release.
Only the south central U.S. saw volume increases of hass, and the gain in that region was only 1%, the report said. The 22.6% gain in hass avocado sales compared with just 1% growth in retail sales for all fresh produce in June.
The release said that total U.S. hass avocado category sales in June ran 28% ahead of the three-year average.
Market leaders
The June retail report from the Hass Avocado Board showed the biggest percentage sales gains for avocados occurred in New Orleans/Mobile (+44%), Orlando (+36%) and Atlanta (+35%). The biggest volume gains were in Pittsburgh (26%), Nashville (16%), and Cincinnati/Dayton (15%), according to the June report.
Markets that lost the most hass volume for the four-week period ending June 11 were San Francisco (25%), Grand Rapids (23%) and St. Louis (18%). Retail markets that grew the slowest in sales, according to the report, were San Francisco (0.6%), Indianapolis (9%) and Las Vegas (+11%).
In the reporting period ending June 11, the average selling price for avocados rose the most in Grand Rapids (57%), Atlanta (53%) and New Orleans/Mobile (49%). Only Pittsburgh reported average avocado prices below last year.
