Avocado Prices Are Skyrocketing

  • Consumption surges in U.S., China; prices doubled in a year
  • No relief seen until at least this fall, Rabobank forecasts

A worker sorts avocados separated by weight from a conveyor belt at a packing facility in Nayarit, Mexico, on Nov. 4, 2016.

Photographer: Cesar Rodriguez/Bloomberg
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That bowl of guacamole on Cinco de Mayo will be more expensive this year, as avocado prices rise to a record on surging demand and a smaller crop in Mexico and California.

A 10-kilogram (22-pound) box of Hass avocados from the state of Michoacan, Mexico’s biggest producer, cost 530 pesos ($27.89) Thursday, according to the government. The price, which is subject to seasonal swings, is more than double what it was a year earlier and the highest in data going back 19 years.