After the big houmous disaster that hit Sainsbury's last month, we're facing another food disaster. This time, it involves avocados. Just about a year ago avocados were declared Brit’s favourite fruitand their popularity was reflected in numbers, as avocado sales reached a record of £128m between 2015 and 2016, selling over 5 million in Pret A Manager and also becoming the most 'pinned' ingredient in Pinterest. Despite this, their prices were below £1 in supermarkets like Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s and Waitrose.
However, the avocado reign might be coming to an end as increasing global demand plus reduced harvests is expected to cause a rise in prices. This is already happening, as revealed in a research by Bloomberg, which shows Mexico’s biggest avocado producer is selling 10kg boxes for £21.800, more than the double from last year.
Mexico is the biggest producer, supplying 82% of avocados, followed by Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru and California. The low production might also be reduced there, and it is already affecting restaurants in United States. Subway and Chipotle Mexican drill were among the restaurant chains affected, being forced to remove the fruit from their menus.
Avocados have the highest protein and oil content of any fruit; they content what is considered 'good fat,' helping to reduce cholesterol levels. It is also said that it reduces risk of strokes and heart related diseases. Although Mexico is still the biggest avocado consumer of the world, the product is also very popular in UK and morerecently, in China. For anyone who's ever perused the brunch hashtag on Instagram, this won't come as a huge surprise. The big question is, what will we do when we've all been priced out of our favourite toast topping?
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.