The 2022 California avocado season is wrapping up, with nearly 263 million pounds shipped through August 14. According to the California Avocado Commission (CAC), approximately 97 percent of the crop has been harvested. Interim CAC President, Ken Melban said that it has been a good year despite some of the challenges growers have faced.
“We were very pleased with the season overall. We saw strong pricing, which in my view is reflective of the premium avocados we have available during the season and the demand by our customers for them,” said Melban. “As is always the case, we’d love to see the season continuing but a lot of it just has to do with current environmental conditions. We saw an early start to our season this year which sort of led to a little bit of an early finish also. There’s still some fruit coming in, but fairly small amounts.”
There were more avocados shipped during the springtime than what is seen in an average year. Melban, who was just recently appointed to the role of interim president, noted that avocado growers suffered many of the same water-related setbacks that other producers have been struggling with. Had there been more rainfall during the California avocado season, fruit sizing would have likely been a bit larger.
“That’s what happens over time. As the avocados are on the trees they are maturing and getting more size. But because of the limited amount of rainfall and just the irrigation and availability of water, that helped expedite some of the harvest plans for some of the growers,” Melban explained. “But now we’re looking towards next season and ‘hope springs eternal’ I think is the saying. Obviously like the rest of California and the western states, we are all very hopeful that we’ll see significant rainfall this coming winter.”
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