In a study commissioned by the Hass Avocado Board (HAB), independent researchers at the University of California, Davis have concluded that promotion programmes funded primarily by HAB assessments were successful during the review period.
HAB, which aims to maintain and expand demand for avocados in the US, said that the five-year evaluation (2013-2017) also found that the promotion programmes conducted by HAB and its member associations played a fundamental role in expanding demand for Hass avocados in the country.
Researchers found that the expansion of sales in the US market has been achieved primarily through rising demand as opposed to lower prices, and that the programmes delivered a benefit to cost ratio ranging from 1.6 to 3.6 to the California producers and importers of Hass avocados who funded them.
Ultimately, the analysis suggests that an expansion of the programmes – even by a small amount – would further increase grower and importer profits.
“These results should come as no surprise to outside analysts or people involved in the industry as producers and marketers,” said Richard Sexton, a professor at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis. “The Hass avocado success story in the US, in terms of the rapid increase achieved in per capita consumption, while maintaining stable or increasing real prices to producers and importers, has made avocados the envy of the produce industry.”
The full five-year evaluation is available on HAB’s recently re-launched website.
