Rise In Avocado Prices

[nu2raw]

Is it just me or has the price of avocados gone up extremley high all of a sudden. I live in Chicago and notice that My old faithful conventional avocado that was 69 cents is now 98 cents. And at WholeFoods it went from 1.99 to 2.49. Dont get me started on the Organic for 2.99. I never in my life saw an avocado in this region of the US for 3 dollars. What is up? Is this going on in other places too? Do you guys think it is the next food on the FDA hit list? :confused:

[barose]

I havent seen a price hike yet. Ours are grown here, so they dont have to travel very far, but they are still about $1-2 each anyway. Oh dear, I hope "they" dont take anything else away from us.

[EZ rider]

I hope not because I use avocados everyday. They are an essential part of my diet.

[blaqberry]

I know! I was like :eek: I mean, I love avos but come on.

[Zuri]

Yes here in Baltimore, MD the price has gone up. It used to be anywhere from $.99-$1.29 or so and now it's anywhere from $1.89-over $2! The huge avocados are the only ones I see being sold at Whole Foods and those are over $4. Those are typically too big for me to handle without wasting them so I don't buy them.

I've also noticed the quality of the avocados has gone down for some reason. I spent nearly $10 on 6 or 7 regular sized avos and they were all bad! Anyone else notice this?

[PammieTaj]

The weather impacts food prices. Shipping costs impact food prices. And grocery stores have something like a 1 or 2 % profit margin. Find a farmer's market and talk with the grower about what's making food cost so much these days.

When I worked in a big box book store people would get snotty and tell me how much they could get something on the internet. I would just say the extra was to pay for the people who worked in the bookstore (who then participate in thier community's economy), the air conditioning, the chair they just sat in for an hour ...

Oh, and there's a lot of theft, which really kills the consumer rather invisibly, because the retailer can't absorb that.

In other words, it's not just about you paying 2.99 for an organic avocado.

[barose]

I never had a bad avocado this year so far.

The best deals I get are directly from the farmers market (from the farmers!) so that cuts out the middle man. Unless I'm on vacation, or have a late night food emergency, I never buy produce from Whole Foods.

[Zuri]

I never had a bad avocado this year so far.

The best deals I get are directly from the farmers market (from the farmers!) so that cuts out the middle man. Unless I'm on vacation, or have a late night food emergency, I never buy produce from Whole Foods.

While I appreciate and love farmer's mkt. sometimes i just want organic and the little bit of organic produce sold at our farmer's mkt in bmore is higher than organic produce at wf. Where you're located Barose I'm sure you get a better choice of produce too, right? You farmer's mkt probably doen't even compare to ours in bmore. I go where good quality food is and don't mind paying for it.

[Glow Worm]

I live close to St Louis, but on the Illinois side. I get avos from Aldi. A month ago they were good and $0.69; now they a good one is hard to come by, most taste funky and cost $1.29-1.59! It's crazy!

[tali]

I just paid $2.49 each (large size) for the conventional avo's at Whole Foods here in San Jose, CA.

Trader Joes has them for $3.69 for 4 small sized avo's but they are rock hard and take about a week to ripen.

The way I look at it is that I'll often eat an avo for a meal. I wouldn't (prior to raw) hesitate to pay upwards of $15/meal if I ate out. Why do I balk at $2.49 for a meal now?

It's the same with fruit prices. I usually get upset to think about paying $1.99 for a mango (for some reason) or $3.99 for a pint of berries but I have no hesitation to spend $4.50 on a Jamba juice which isn't even fresh fruit or juice.

I think it's all in how you look at things.

[barose]

While I appreciate and love farmer's mkt. sometimes i just want organic and the little bit of organic produce sold at our farmer's mkt in bmore is higher than organic produce at wf. Where you're located Barose I'm sure you get a better choice of produce too, right? You farmer's mkt probably doen't even compare to ours in bmore. I go where good quality food is and don't mind paying for it.

I can see why that would be the case. Most things are consistently cheaper and better at the farmers market, but its been a good season for produce this year in CA. I know our Whole Foods charge more for Mexican grown conventional avocados than the farmers market charge for organic California ones. Sometimes they charge more for everything conventional than organic someplace else. I guess they know they cant compete with the markets and local produce stores. The farmers markets are almost daily somewhere so that makes a big difference. Some are "organic only" by policy.

[mulch]

I actually bought 2 of the expensive ones at whole foods
(oak park). It was my first day trying to do the raw thing. I was reading the sunfooddiet book and got inspired to spend all of my money on raw and organic. after spending my grocery allowance for the week, i went home to a not so happy husband:p

[StarFire]

We have 4 avocado trees so most of our consumption is from those trees. On the rare occasion that we have bought avos - they range in price from about $2.00 to $3.00 .... but our avocado here in Hawaii are the size of a very small melon! I didn't think that was too bad a price for an avo that size... :o are you saying that is expensive??? I didn't realize that! and here I thought I was getting a deal!! lol... ah well.... live and learn! ;)

[Lay-Lay]

last ones I bought were $2.95 organic.

[mblessed]

I've also noticed the quality of the avocados has gone down for some reason. I spent nearly $10 on 6 or 7 regular sized avos and they were all bad! Anyone else notice this?

Zuri, I have had the same thing happen, week after week. I finally started keeping my receipts and have taken some back to the store. I'm sorry it's happening to you to!:(

Blessings and peace,

Marcia

[Bethanie]

We can get the large ones there and they are $1.49 they are big enough to last 2 days for 2 people.
Some of the smaller ones are $1.29 at our local grocery store so ours have gone up too.
B.

[katie01]

I think the price goes up because it's not in season right now.

[codajess]

The store I usually get my avos at are $1.50 each for conventional. Once in a while they'll be $1, but the normal and usual price is $1.50.

[raw_danceruk]

...this is intresting.. I thought stuff here in genral was more exspensive..but it would seem not.. since can get 4 organic avos for £1.99 (that is the pricier end of the scale)...

the summer this year here has been non exsistant mind..so I couldnt get a lot of other produce today..and the zuchinis were tiny..there was a note up saying sorry they are small the weathers been bad! made me chuckle..cant apologise for nature.. sure they will be yummy anyways :D

Back to avos.. they are normally the most pricey thing I buy..but feel its well worth it :o

[learningrawways]

I used to buy mine at Sam's Club, you'd get 5 for $3.88. Then sometime in the beginning of summer or late spring the price jumped--every week it would go up a little more so now they are I think it's at $5. At the Giant though I can get 4 of them for $2.99.

[Rubyred]

I thought they might be out of season, so the price was higher. But actually California avocados should be at their peak season, and therefor cheaper and fresher. But, I've noticed the prices are higher too. What gives? I've also experienced those nasty rotting avocados on occassion.

Here's a good link on seasonal produce, and general info on produce and it's seasons. Fruit Seasons - Avocados (http://fruitseasons.com/Avocados) Useful for rawbes.

[Frugal Raw]

Here in east TN, they're 2 for $3 - $4. When I was in TX, I could usually get them for 2 for $1. Citrus prices are much higher in TN too - lemons and limes I could usually get in TX at 5 - 10 for $1. Here I can usually only get 2 for $1. Garlic is higher here as well:(

[Cinnamon]

My last few trips to the store (Central Market) avocados were $2.98 organic or conventional. Guess which I bought! But I think these prices are so high, mid-summer I could get small ones for $1.00 each but that part of the season is over here I guess. I just am not eating as many, maybe 2 per week at most.

[SeaSprite]

I've actually been looking at buying an organic avo farm in Santa Barbara so know a little about the pricing.. for some reason, most markets have about a 600% markup on avocados! Wholesale price is between $.15 (for non-organic avos from Mexico) to $.40 (organic avos from Cali) with most California avocados being about $.30... which is where most avocados come from. Isn't that crazy? There's a movment in Australia to stop stores from doing this, hopefully it will catch on here too. They do have reasons, avocados are hard to keep in good condition, there's pretty thin window of opportunity to sell them, they're hard to ship without damage, especially in the winter because they're ruined if they freeze.. so they do have a lot of losses. But 600%??? That's why they can have those amazing sales where they're 75% off, they're still profiting. Here in Tahoe they're usually $1.49 for regular and $1.99 for organic. I used to grow avocados in Santa Barbara.. they really don't need pesticides at all, i thin kthe main difference with organic will be fertilizer. The only pest problems they have are rodents and some birds.

I'm with Tali tho.. it's just about what we're used to. I never scoffed at the proce of tofurkey, even though it costs a lot more than avocados, in fact I probably wouldn't even notice if it was fifiy cents more than last time. They still cost a lot less than pizza ;)

[GlimR]

Tali~
You are right on the money. The old me wouldn't hesitate to spend any amount of money it took to buy the "treats' I wanted...all sorts of gourmet crap. I may look twice at the prices but it is all going to nourish and build me up so...if I want it I get it and enjoy every bite!

The prices do vary a great deal through the year based on growing season and all sorts of other things....I just take it in stride and relish the choices I have eating raw...so many great things to eat!!!