'Avalanche' Of Avocados: Why Aussies Are Dumping Truckloads Of Highly-Sought-After Fruit

Despite the highest food price inflation in years, Australians are dumping truck loads of avocados as oversupply has driven the prices to a record low.

What Happened: Australian farmers would this year produce 22 avocados per Australian, up 26% on last year's figures, a new report by agribusiness bank Rabobank showed, according to ABC news.

The report pointed out that Australia was on target to produce 124,000 tonnes of avocados this year, an increase of 30,000 tonnes from the previous year.

This came after avocado production in the country boomed enormously between 2017 and 2019.

"Each year, during that period, over 1,000 hectares of avocado trees were planted, and trees are still to mature and still to produce avocados," the report said.

"This year, we've seen a large increase, particularly in WA, with acreage maturing there. And for the next few years, we're going to see that increase all across Australia."

What is being dubbed the "avalanche" of avocados in the Australian market has led to a drop in the prices of the fruit. The retail prices for Avocado dropped to a record low of one Australian dollar per fruit in June last year and again early this month.

"Simple demand-and-supply economics tell us that when supply increases, the price will drop, so prices this year are 47% below the five-year average as well," the report noted.

Avocado grower and Avocados Australia chairman Jim Kochi told the publication that the simplest solution was to increase the volume of avocados to the export market — while she suggested fellow Aussies to "Just eat an extra avocado a fortnight."

The production was so high in May that footage of tens of thousands of avocados being dumped in Australia took the internet by storm, according to news.com.au.