The California Avocado Commission released a forecast earlier this week projecting a yield of around 375 million pounds, the largest crop estimate for the locally grown fruit since 2020.

In an interview with Freshfruitportal.com, Terry Splane, the organization's Vice President of Marketing, emphasized that growers' efforts are one of the main drivers behind the increase. 

"California avocado growers believe deeply in the industry's continued viability and are consistently investing in their crops," he explained. "The projected increase in yield for the 2025 California avocado crop is due in part to significant grower investment into new plantings over the last decade, which are now coming into production." 

He explained that the new plantings are intended to replace older, less productive trees and trees lost in the fires and other adverse weather anomalies. The increase in avocado sales was also a definite motivation for growers in the state. 

"Some growers have planted additional trees to increase their avocado acreage or because they are moving to a higher density planting model on existing acreage," he added. 

Now that the Super Bowl season is approaching, the increase in avocado production will come in handy to supply select customers.

"The majority of avocados for the two weeks before the Big Game is expected to come from Mexico," Splane said. "While peak availability of California avocados is expected to occur spring through summer, some growers are size picking now in time to support Big Game promotions. This flexibility is because different California avocado growing regions begin and end their harvesting based on the maturity of their fruit and market conditions." 

Splane said that the actual California avocado shipments for the week ending January 19 exceeded 3 million pounds. Thanks to avocado farmers, the organization continues to see the industry grow in size and strength. 

"The acreage of planted avocado trees has increased modestly for several years, but the best representation of the growth of the California avocado industry is the number of new trees planted," he added. "California avocado growers have invested in growing their crop size by planting roughly 3 million new avocado trees in California from 2013 to 2023."