Avocado Shortage Sends Prices Soaring
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- If you are a guacamole lover, be prepared to dip deeper into your wallet as the price of avocado is skyrocketing.
A shortage of avocados in Mexico is causing prices to soar, and it is now being called a luxury fruit.
According to the Hass Avocado Board in Mission Viejo, the number of avocados shipped from Mexico in the first week of October was cut in half compared to a year ago.
"With prices what they are we, just literally can't get them. Our supplier can't keep up with demand," Kaitlynn Bauman, owner of Parlor 1255 said.
At Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco, they had to stop selling avocados over the weekend.
They've been able to find a grower here in California, but the avocados are really small.
"It's hard to get any avocados in California, and we literally can't get any avocados from Mexico," Paige Icardi, Assistant Store Manager at Bi-Rite said.
Agriculture Officials say usually 40 million pounds usually imported from Mexico a week has plummeted to just 13 million pounds.
Sammy Montoya owns the Green Parrot Villa in Santa Ana.
He said he paid $72 for a case of avocados a week ago. On Tuesday when he went to pick up a case, the price jumped to $105 a case – an increase of more than 40 percent.
He said he will not be serving guacamole for his Taco Tuesday special.
At Frank Garcia's La Casa Garcia restaurant in Anaheim, he is still serving guacamole but paying dearly for it. His supplier is charging nearly $2 an avocado.
But Garcia said he will never pass the cost on to his customers. "I don't care if it goes to $200 a case; I still going to serve it in La Casa Garcia," he said. "I don't know the problem. I think Mexico is not sending avocados. That's the problem."
"Going to the grocery store, the prices jump dramatically. They used to be less than $1. Now they're running for about $2 a piece," Ray Rivera said.
"There's a couple of places that we eat at in Pomona, and there's always an extra charge now for avocados," Frank Brito said.
Roger Slaughter won't pay the up charge to add avocados to his meal. "It's a ripoff," he said.
