Avocado growers facing array of new challenges

By: MARK WALKER - Staff Writer | Saturday, January 28, 2006 12:17 AM PST ∞

NORTH COUNTY ---- A bumper California avocado crop and increasing imports are combining to drive down prices. The huge crop is competing for space on store shelves with imports, and the result is a lower price being paid to producers, even though retail prices have remained level.

Growers are expected to harvest their largest crop since 1992, according to Bob Lucy, one of the owners of the Del Rey Avocado packing plant in Fallbrook.

California growers are expected to produce 510 million pounds of fruit this year, up from a little more than 300 million pounds last year. A majority of the state crop is grown in San Diego and Riverside counties.

"We had a lot of rain, a good bloom and the result is a bumper crop," Lucy said Friday. "Now, we're fighting for market share."

Increased imports from Chile and Mexico are forcing the domestic industry to become more aggressive in its sales, and to spend more time and money to develop and maintain its share of the market.

Mexican fruit was limited to 31 states until this year, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in a bow to pressure from Mexico, expanded that to 47 states. Starting in 2007, fruit from south of the border will be sold in all 50 states.

Prices aren't the only worries for growers in San Diego and Southwest Riverside counties. Many are also battling thrips, tiny pests that scar the fruit and slash its market value.

Although a mostly cosmetic problem, the scarring being seen from thrips results in the fruit being downgraded and mostly sold in bulk to the food service industry.

Thrips first emerged in Mexico orchards and were not seen in California groves until the late 1990s. Most of the damage is being seen in groves in the Temecula and Inland North County areas, home to more than 34,000 acres of avocado production.

Thrips, imports and market share were among the items being discussed by more than 200 growers and industry officials who gathered in Pala this week for the California Avocado Commission's southern region annual meeting. The Irvine-based commission is the promotion and research arm for the fruit dubbed "green gold" because of the prices a single piece commands on store shelves. The commission gets the money it spends on advertising from a mandatory 2.5-cent per pound assessment fee charged to growers.

"The state of the industry is all about change," Lucy said. "There's a new dawn upon us with more fruit coming in from Chile and Mexico, and that presents new challenges."

The meeting came on the eve of the industry's biggest annual sales weekend, the upcoming Super Bowl set for Feb. 5 in Detroit.

About 50 million pounds of avocados are expected to be sold off grocery store shelves next week as people make guacamole and other dishes to serve during the game. If all the tonnage was converted into guacamole, the commission says it would cover Detroit's Ford Field from end to end in more than 11.8 feet of the chip dip.

Despite those kinds of expected sales, this year's crop has forced prices to growers down from about $1 per pound last year to 60 to 64 cents.

Lucy said Del Rey expects to pack about 1.4 million 25-pound boxes of avocados, compared with about 750,000 last year.

Milt Black, who operates a 6-acre grove on Olive Hill Road near Fallbrook, said Friday he sold his interest in a much larger grove a year ago because of the expansion in Mexican imports.

"I got out just in time," said Black, who had part ownership in a 40-acre Valley Center grove.

The Mexican and U.S. production seasons coincide, whereas the vast majority of Chilean fruit comes onto the market during the off-season.

Black, whose remaining grove has about 10 percent thrip damage, said he believes California's avocado industry will shrink in the coming years.

"People will be using their land as their last crop, selling it off for housing," he said, adding that as a lifelong Republican, he remains mystified as to why the Bush administration did not shut the lid on increased imports from Mexico.

Lucy said he tries to keep growers focused on positive industry developments.

"We don't want them to get discouraged," he said. "We say, you have to learn to be an even better farmer."

A well-producing grove is expected to generate about $6,000 an acre in gross sales this year, with an average production and harvest cost of about $3,500 per acre, Lucy said.

On the Web

http://www.avocado.org

Contact staff writer Mark Walker at (760) 740-3529 or mlwalker@nctimes.com. To comment, go to nctimes.com.

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