As Del Rey Avocado Co. President Patrick Lucy surveyed the avocado landscape in early August, the company was sourcing product from five distinct regions. But soon that will dwindle down to just two regions —  both in Mexico.

He noted that the company’s organic avocados from California were just about finished, though it will still be sourcing conventional fruit from its Morro Bay grower partners until the end of August. It had two more weeks of shipments of Colombian fruit before that point of origin takes about a three-month break, with production from its second flower beginning sometime in November. Shipments of Peru had passed their peak week with Del Rey expecting to have Peruvian avocados until early September.

On the upside, Del Rey was just beginning to bring in avocados representing the start of Mexico’s 2022-23 crop from the traditional Michoacan district. Lucy said Mexico is expecting a large crop this year, with forecasts estimating an increase in volume of 25 percent over 2021-22. He said volume is starting to ramp up giving the U.S. market ample supplies for the first time in more than six months. And rounding out Del Rey’s list of suppliers was the first batch of avocados from Jalisco, which he noted had left the packing house in Mexico but had not yet arrived at the Del Rey warehouse in Texas.

With a total volume estimated at 15-20 percent of the neighboring state of Michoacan, Jalisco is expected to be a significant supplier of Mexican avocados to the U.S. market in years to come. Lucy is anticipating that the Jalisco shipments will be priced similarly to Michoacan and will mirror that crop in quality and fruit size, but he admits to not knowing for sure. “We’ve seen videos but we haven’t seen the fruit itself,” he said, noting that Jalisco is a distinct growing region and the fruit may have its own personality.

Though juggling five sources of supply in one week might be a bit out of the ordinary, multiple sources is almost always a reality in the U.S. market. Mexico might have some level of exclusivity in early fall but both Chile and Colombia will have some fruit trickling in in that time period.

Lucy said aside from the multiple sources, Del Rey is going through a period of status quo. The company has added U.S. facilities over the last few years, but this year it is concentrating its efforts on simply providing the best fruit it can to its customers. He said the firm’s foodservice business has come back, as America has entered a detente with COVID-19. Though cases of the virus have gone up in recent months, the country has remained open and dining out has once again become a normal part of American life.

Lucy did note that the market price came down quite a bit in July, which will allow for promotional opportunities moving forward. He expects that Mexico’s increased volume will lead to ad pricing throughout the rest of the year. In early August, he said the avocado market had seemed to stabilize. “This week (August 1-7), the price was the same as last week so it appears Mexico found its bottom, though it could move a little bit lower,” he said reporting that conventional 48s from Mexico were around $40.