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- Mexican avocado prices hit a record high for February, according to Bloomberg.
- The increase comes a week before the Super Bowl, the biggest day for avocado consumption in the US.
- The entire fruit aisle is facing price hikes due to high production costs and labor shortages.
Your famous Super Bowl guacamole may cost you more this season, as avocado prices hit a record high.
A 20-pound box of Hass avocados from Mexico’s largest exporter to the US costs $6.29 more than it did during the same time period last year, according to Bloomberg estimates of US and Mexican agricultural market data.
Though the data series only goes back about 20 years, avocado prices have increased nearly eightfold in that time. Meanwhile, per capita consumption has doubled in the past decade, Bloomberg reported.
The record-breaking price tag is due to a combination of soaring production costs, labor shortages, and supply chain backlogs that have triggered price hikes across industries. Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day for avocado consumption in the country, so the fan-favorite dip will not come cheap.
And it’s not just avocados. The entire fruit aisle is almost 15% more expensive than it was last year around this time, according to December data from the Hass Avocado Board. Canada’s new vaccine mandate for truckers is also expected to increase the cost of produce, due to the lack of truck drivers able to cross the border between the US and Canada.
The bright side is that there are no avocado shortages are looming on the horizon, unlike in 2019, when several factors led to an “avocado crisis” that left many restaurants and grocery stores empty-handed. One local breakfast spot in Texas made national headlines when it stopped offering fresh avocado, angering its millennial customer base.
This time around there will still be avocados on the shelves — you’ll just have to pay more than you have in two decades.
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