Avocados will still be available to a lesser degree in production zones by mid-century, but at a price, studies warn.
According to The Mirror in a January 7, 2025 story, 2050 production could fall by 41% due to erratic weather patterns.
On the line are key sources in central America from Mexico to Peru and Africa, where climate is fast changing.
If the world’s temperatures continue rising, the fruit which is already struggling over water depletion will cut growth momentum by 2050.
Supermarket Alert
In anticipation, supermarkets are alerting of future shortage, especially in key destination markets such as the UK. The country particularly ferries its avocados over thousands of miles from the tropics.
Most supermarkets in the UK sell a medium ripe avocado at £0.75 per piece, which reflects the already strong UK price.
Thirsty Avocados
The report also illustrates the big thirst of the typical avocado tree vis-á-vis mango. While nurturing a single avocado on a tree needs 320 liters of water, a kg of mangos needs a quarter of that.
In dry places, irrigating a kg of avocados on a tree would require irrigation water equal to 800 liters.
Due to rising demand, fruit cultivation is expanding with water turning scarcer each year in origin countries.
Indeed, global production of avocados could shrink by 41% between 2025 and 2050. During the timeline, Mexico could see as much as a 43% production slump.
The exponential market boom of avocado markets since the 1950s has undeniably improved the lot of farmers.
Sustainability body SaveMoneyCutCarbon pounces on this revenue and market growth as a twin cause of depreciating water.
The organization says that market expansion has led penetration into ecological areas, hence putting “pressure on water resources.”
Carbon Print
To alert consumers, sustainability advocates are taking their battle to the skies to show how airborne avocados expand the carbon footprint.
According to one tally, 2 tiny avocados in a packet dispense 846.36 g of carbon, double that from a kg of bananas. This includes the long distance of shipping and moisture control energy in use during the flight.
So, avocados will still be here in 2050 but unless sustainability changes in the interim, the fruit’s production will have slumped. Below statistics illustrate this point further by revisiting historical production of “alligator pears.”
Global Avocados Production History Statistics
The avocado first reached human society 10,000 years ago, probably in Puebla State, Mexico. It would take over 9,500 years before Europeans in the late 1400s, transitioned the fruit from Mexico to Spain and Jamaica. Indonesia also began to grow the avocado commercially in the 1750s. Patenting of varieties began with Hass in 1935 in California, although the origin of Hass is unclear. Thanks to late 20th century health consciousness and the social media culinary shares of the mid-2000s, avocados are now a superfood.
The historical data below since 1960 reflects how production has grown in tandem with growing health concerns:
1961: the global production of avocados was lowest historically in 1961 at 716,353 tonnes, according to the Helgi Library.
2000: since 2000, production has almost always been on an upward trajectory. Turn of the millennium production stood at 2,710,000 tonnes.
2015: fifteen years later in 2015, the millennium’s production had doubled to 5,280,000 tonnes.
2022: only seven years later in 2022, production at 8,980,000 tonnes, was more than 10 times that of 1961.