WASHINGTON: The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that Mexico exports 170,000 tons of guacamole per year. The USDA stated that this business was managed in part by packers that have investments in the US market. Mexico exports guacamole to the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Unfortunately, there is no official data regarding the export volume available. “The vast majority of the export businesses are directly managed by the packers, many of which have significant investments in the United States,” stated the Department of Agriculture in a report.
Michoacan producers usually sell their fruit directly to the packers, in cash and per volume. Harvesting and associated costs (transport, boxes, and other) are covered by packing plants, which also provide the collection teams. As with other fruits from trees, the main functions of packers before export are cleaning, sorting the fruit by quality (mainly size and appearance), and packing it according to the contracted specifications, such as tagging and bagging. Overall, the product that doesn’t meet export specifications is sent to the domestic market.
According to estimates, Mexico’s Hass avocado production in the 2016-2017 marketing cycle will stand at 1.8 million tons. Michoacan is the world’s leading avocado producer and it accounts for 80% of the total Mexican avocado production. The Kuo Group, is the largest guacamole production company in the world and its Wholly Guacamole brand’s guacamole sales increased by double-digits in 2015.
