Grower: Fear not, guac lovers! There is no avocado shortage
Mar 7, 2014, 4:02 PM | Updated: 4:02 pm
PHOENIX — Fear not, avocado lovers. There will be no guac-apocolypse!
Rumors began to circulate that Chipotle, a popular Mexican food chain restaurant, would be pulling guacamole from its menu because of skyrocketing avocado costs associated with the current drought situation in California.
“The supply for 2014 is projected to be above last year and last year was a great year for avocado supply,” said Jan Delyser of the California Avocado Commission.
In addition to the 1.8 billion pounds of fruit imported from countries like Mexico and Peru, California growers are expecting healthy crops this season.
“Our crop is going to be lighter — around 300 million pounds — but it’s based on alternate bearings,” said Delyser. “We’re not attributing it to the drought. When you look at volume from California, historically, 300 (million)- to a 350-million pound crop is considered a normal-sized crop.”
Last year, despite the arid conditions, California growers produced half a billion pounds of avocados. It was one of the largest crops in history.
Meanwhile, consumers shouldn’t see any dramatic changes to the cost of an avocado at the grocery store, unless there is an unexpected spike in demand.
