On average, avocado sales in the United States have enjoyed double-digit growth for more than a decade — and veteran Rankin McDaniel Sr. of Fallbrook, CA-based McDaniel Fruit Co., sees more of the same on the horizon.

Surveying his own company’s efforts in the past year, he admitted that the status quo has been the order of the day in most regards though he added that the firm has expanded its acreage in California, increased its packaging capability and added to its bagging capacity.

The company has a modern facility and is up to date in virtually every way, so wholesale changes from year to year are not necessary. But that doesn’t mean he is less excited about the prospects ahead.

McDaniel noted that the supply/demand situation was a little bit out of whack to start the season, which resulted in lower f.o.b. and field prices than were expected. But he’s also been around the block enough to know that this too will change.

“We have an oversupply situation at the moment,” he said in early March, “but we have seen these cycles come and go. I’ll just tell you that we are continuing to invest in California fruit.”

Long term, he said, the prospects remain very good.

McDaniel said a lot of fruit is moving through the pipeline on a daily basis, 365 days of the year, but he is still bullish that the potential for even more growth is there. He better be right as the industry is banking on it. Total U.S. consumption soared past the two billion pound mark last year and California’s 2016 crop is one-third larger than its 2015 counterpart, while Mexico continues to increase its shipments to the United States.

“Demand for California fruit is strong especially in California,” he said.

He predicted that March volume from California will grow steadily until the industry “hits its stride” in April, and then shipments will continue through August.

At the peak of the season, McDaniel estimated that California would be pumping about 14-15 million pounds per week into the marketplace. That will represent only about one-third of the total volume consumed in the United States, but he believes a premium price will be paid for that fruit.

McDaniel Fruit sources from many different points of origin and it does sticker its California fruit as being from the Golden State to capitalize on that point of differentiation.

In the early going, as California growers size-picked (selectively picked a grove taking only the largest fruit), McDaniel said that created an upside down situation where the large sizes were more plentiful than the smaller ones. But as strip harvesting (all of the fruit is taken from a grove) becomes the norm in April, he expected the size curve to flatten out with good distribution at all the popular sizes from 40 to 60 count.

As this story was being written, El Nino, after a two-month dry spell, was once again dumping significant rain in Southern California. McDaniel said the rain would only be a positive as it will help size the fruit and improve the quality as rain water is much preferred over well water.