In this installment of the ‘Agronometrics In Charts’ series, Cristian Crespo F. illustrates how the U.S. market is evolving. Each week the series looks at a different horticultural commodity, focusing on a specific origin or topic visualizing the market factors that are driving change.

In the U.S. there are two dates on which avocado consumption in the form of guacamole skyrockets. The first is the Super Bowl in early February and the second is the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. On May 5, Mexico celebrates its victory against France helped by other European armies in 1862 at the Battle of Puebla, and Mexicans in the U.S. have established it as Mexican Pride Day.

This week we will take a tour of the prices and volumes of avocados in the North American market in the days prior to celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

Historic volumes (KG) of avocados 

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

March 2021 was the month with the highest avocado arrivals to the U.S. in comparison to the last five years. As we can see in the previous graph, over 131.6 million kilograms of avocados arrived in the North American market, a 36 percent increase from 2020.

As can be seen from the following graph, the greatest increase in these shipments came from Mexico, marking a record of over 120.7 million kilograms of avocados in March 2021, which was 61 percent higher year-on-year.

Avocado volumes (KG) from Mexico

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

Regarding prices, as can be seen in the graph below, the average prices of avocados in the U.S. were lower during the first weeks of 2021, compared to 2020. In week 16 the average prices were US$ 3.27 per kilogram.

Historic avocado prices (USD/KG) | Conventional

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

We have to wait and see what the actual situation of the prices of "green gold" after Cinco de Mayo are in the U.S. (which will be reported in future articles). The North American market is dominated by Mexico and avocado supplies are currently strong with rising demand amid the pandemic, as the fruit is seen as immunity-boosting.

Although it isn't a vaccine, the industry believes there is no better recipe for immunity than that of good guacamole this Cinco de Mayo.

In our ‘In Charts’ series, we work to tell some of the stories that are moving the industry. Feel free to take a look at the other articles by clicking here.

You can keep track of the markets daily through Agronometrics, a data visualization tool built to help the industry make sense of the huge amounts of data that professionals need to access to make informed decisions. If you found the information and the charts from this article useful, feel free to visit us at www.agronometrics.com where you can easily access these same graphs, or explore the other 20 fruits we currently track.