Hawai'i Avocado Industry Analysis; Part 2: Buyer Preferences Focus

I the late 1980s, Hawai‘i’s avocado industry was able to supply about half of the total local market demand, with the remaining half being provided by imports, most of which arrived from California. As reported in the Avocado Industry Analysis No. 3 (Bittenbender et al. 1989), in 1987 the industry supplied 900,000 pounds, or 45 percent, of the local market, and this trend has been stable until recent years. In 2005, avocado production in Hawai‘i was 800,000 pounds, which satisfied almost 30 percent of total demand, and 2,000,000 pounds were imported (National Agricultural Statistical Service 2005). From surveys of the Hawai‘i avocado industry it was estimated that about half of local production is wasted (Chan-Halbrendt et al. 2007). Considering also the higher prices received for imported avocados, which are almost three to four times the price of local avocados (Chan-Halbrendt et al. 2007), there is a great potential for import substitution by Hawai‘i’s avocado industry. Our avocado industry is quite versatile, in that it can supply many different cultivars and thus cater to unique customer tastes as well as try’s inability to respond to market demand opportunities. Similarly, Bittenbender et al. (1989) concluded that lack of production and marketing information was severely hindering the avocado industry’s expansion to meet growing demand. Furthermore, Hawai‘i’s avocado growers are mostly small-scale farmers with low production volume, and they often sell directly to buyers, while their competitors from out of state operate at a much larger scale. During the 1980s, as a Avocado cultivar ‘Kahaluu’ Photo: The Honolulu Advertiser strategy to enhance the local different uses of the product, such as for guacamole, oil, and lotions. Despite the diverse local supply and lower retail prices for Hawai‘i-grown avocados, increasing amounts of a single cultivar (‘Hass’) from Central and South America (Mexico, Chile) and California are being imported. Import trends from 1989 to 2007 showed that even as demand for avocados in Hawai‘i increased, local growers lost market share against imports. TheHawai‘i AvocadoAssociation (HAA) has asserted that lack of information on the preferences of buyers and consumers and lack of coordinated supply decisions are major reasons for the indus-