Love Avocado? Don't Freak Out But There's A Shortage

Love avo smeared on toast or thrown into your summer salad? Well bad news sorry, the summer fruit is gonna be harder to get a hold of.

A shortage of avocados combined with increasing demand for the fruit has seen prices soar this season.

A smaller crop nationwide this year meant they were selling faster in some areas despite the increased price.

Southern Product Limited director Alistair Young said overall supply volumes were down considerably by 40 per cent on last season.

"The total crop last year was 7.1 million trays ... This year we are looking at 2.5 million export and 3.8 million trays overall," he said.

Mr Young said there were several new orchard developments going on in the north of New Zealand to help keep up with demand.

Cameron Rd Choice Food and Spices manager Michael Sami said there was definitely a shortage because of the high export demand, wet weather and less crops for the domestic market.

Mr Sami said his store sourced its avocados from Turners and Growers.

Despite the prices in supermarkets they did their best to keep their prices down, and yesterday had a three for $5 special. Individually they were $1.99 each, he said.

"We sell about 500 to 600 a week."

Radica Prakash, who has owned the store for five years, said she could remember a time when you could buy an avocado for $0.50 each or even less but demand had grown and so had prices.

Figures released by New Zealand Avocado - the growers' association and industry council - showed 90,000 more Kiwi households were buying the fruit, compared to previous seasons.

New Zealand Avocado spokeswoman Midge Munro said the public were becoming more aware of the health benefits of avocados, with their healthier fats.

Read the full story at nzherald.co.nz