In this installment of the ‘In Charts' series, Cristian Crespo of Agronometrics 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.

This week we're going to take a look at the U.S. avocado market and the impact that greater supplies than last year have had on prices. 

Looking at the chart below, we can see that since week 18 prices have been in gradual decline and well below last year. By week 30, average arrival prices of avocados were US$2.60 per kilo, which is 39% lower than the same time last year.

Prices of non-organic Hass avocados in the U.S. market (USD/KG) in the U.S. market

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

The higher year-on-year prices from the start of 2020 until around April could likely be explained by lower volumes from Mexico, the leading supplier, compared to 2019.

Although in July the supply levels were similar to lasts year, significantly higher volumes in May and June had a clear impact on prices, with both California and Mexico supplying the market with more fruit.

Volume of non-organic Hass avocados in the U.S. market in the U.S. market (KG)

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

In the chart below, we can see that supplies from California have been consistently higher than in 2019 throughout the year so far, especially in the month of May.

Volume of non-organic Hass avocados from California in the U.S. market (KG)

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

May is also the month that Mexico began shipping higher volumes of avocados to the U.S. than last year, and it continued to do so in June and July.

Volume of non-organic Hass avocados from Mexico in the U.S. market (KG)

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

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.