It’s not just you: avocados are even more expensive lately
Restaurants and consumers alike are suffering from skyrocketing avocado prices. For the first week of July, the wholesale price of a 25-pound box of Mexican avocados was $84.25, compared to $37 around the same time last year, analyst David Magaña told USA Today. “This is the highest price for this time of year in at least a decade, probably more,” he said.
What’s behind this recent price increase? There are multiple factors (surprisingly none of them having to do with the tariffs President Trump recently threatened to impose on Mexican imports): rising global consumption of avocados, the smallest avocado crop in California in years, and a seasonal drop in production in Mexico, which supplies the vast majority of the U.S.’s avocados. It’s an issue of supply and demand.
Many restaurants have been left scrambling to respond to higher avocado prices. Some, Austin 360 reports, have raised the prices of dishes, while some have chosen to eat the costs at the expense of profits, and others have temporarily removed avocados from their menus altogether.
Meanwhile, to the south, Mexico residents have also been dismayed by more expensive avocados, and are reportedly outraged by recipes for avocado-less “mock guacamole” surfacing on social media. In Mexico City, which is home to a robust street food scene that includes guacamole at every taco stand, some food stall operators are contending with the price hike by cutting back on avocados at home, but not at work. “I have to offer this product, because if I didn’t have guacamole, people wouldn’t come here to eat,” one taco and burrito seller told the Associated Press.
And in other news…
- Uber Eats is no longer McDonald’s exclusive delivery partner. The fast-food giant will begin testing DoorDash delivery in Houston, with plans to expand that deal nationally. [NRN]
- Blue Apron is adding Beyond Meat to its recipes starting this summer. Shares of the meal-kit company shot up more than 50 percent after the partnership was announced, suggesting that people are into it. [Insider]
- Dominique Crenn issues a “wake-up call” for the food industry in response to the climate crisis. “I am going to strive to make all my restaurants waste-free,” she writes in an Instagram post caption. “What’s the one thing YOU can do starting now?” [@dominiquecrenn]
- A new report from global research nonprofit World Resources Institute says Americans will need to cut their average consumption of beef nearly in half in order to meet growing food demands while keeping the climate crisis at bay by 2050. [CNN]
- Relatedly, a recent report (commissioned by pro-plant-based food organizations) estimates the plant-based food market is now valued at $4.5 billion. [Food Dive]
- The National Restaurant Association’s philanthropic foundation has been awarded a $4.5 million grant from the Department of Labor to train incarcerated young adults and to place them in local restaurant or food-service jobs upon release. [New Food Economy]
- Relatable:
me eating almost any rice dish pic.twitter.com/j4PKkEEIgq
— Bim Adewunmi (@bimadew) July 14, 2019
• All AM Intel Coverage [E]