Colombia to see 25-35% avocado production increase in 2024

Overview of avocados from Colombia in the U.S. market, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Original published on January 26, 2024.

After a challenging and wet 2023 season Colombian avocado producers and exporters are expecting an increase in volumes of between 25-35% for 2024. Mauricio Moranth Zuluaga, from the exporter Montana Fruit in Colombia, says “In Colombia we had almost three years of continuous rains (La Niña phenomenon) this greatly affected farms (death of trees) and productivity (productivity dropped by approximately 50%). Since the second half of last year, the weather has improved, the rains have decreased and that has meant that this year the production projection has improved and we have good quality.”

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

He says last year, Hass avocado exports in Colombia increased by approximately 26% compared to 2022, thanks to better weather conditions and new crops that came into production. “We are in the El Niño phenomenon, which for Colombia is drought with very little rain. This means that we have more flowering in the fields, so we expect a greater increase in production volume in 2024. Regarding the sizes this season that we are finishing we had larger sizes, mainly more 16-18 and 20 gauges. In terms of quality, thanks to the decrease in rainfall in the second half of 2023, we have improved a lot and quality claims at destination have decreased.”

Many of their key markets across Europe and the US have stable to high demand while paying high prices for avocados that suits the uptick in volumes from Colombia. “Colombia continues to consolidate in Europe as the main supplier of Hass avocado in the December-January-February season, this means that we have very good return prices in that season because Colombia does not fill the market as Peru does in the summer season (May-June-July). Regarding the next six months we see a very good opportunity in the United States market since it seems that Mexico will not have enough fruit to supply the American market and there is a very good opportunity for the Colombian origin with good return prices,” says Moranth.

“In the market the “naughty” season during April-August, we see a very good opportunity in the US since Mexico will not have enough production and in Europe, as always, Peru will export most of its fruit to them and this makes prices drop considerably,” states Moranth.

He concludes by saying, “we see a very good opportunity this year for Hass avocado in Colombia since we are going to have a better climate than previous years, which means better production and we see that both Peru and Mexico are not going to grow much in production so we are going to have good prices. In volumes we at Montana expect to increase above 80% in Hass and Colombia I think will increase with approximately 25-35%.”

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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