🥑 How India Fell in Love With Avocados
456% jump in Avocado imports in India in just 3 years! Woah, why?
New day, new trend.
The latest trend? Avocados!
#avocadotoast has 2.2M posts on Instagram!Â
But it’s not just a social media trend.
We are consuming a lot of avocados too.Â
According to the World Avocado Organisation (WAO), India has seen a 456% growth in avocado imports from 397 metric tons in 2019-20 to 2210 metric tons in 2022-23.
Known as the ‘green gold’, the avocado is expected to become the second most traded tropical fruit in the world by 2030, only after bananas!
Where do they originally come from?
Avocados are native to Mexico and Central America.Â
Americans have been consuming avocados since the 1900s. It is only now that the fruit has risen to fame!
How?
Social media.
Millennials and Gen Zs don’t journal. They simply ‘vlog’ it or ‘instagram’ it.Â
In fact, there’s a whole avocado community where people share recipes, tips, and hacks for getting the most out of their avo obsession.Â
And why not?Â
Avocados are superfoods.
They’re loaded with good stuff like healthy fats, fibre, vitamins C, E, K1, B6 and essential minerals like potassium and magnesium.Â
With people becoming more health-conscious after Covid, the demand for avocados is rising like never before.
So much so that we have also started producing avocados in India in:
Kodaikanal and Ooty area of Tamil Nadu
Gundlupet and Kodagu region of Karnataka, and
Minor regions of North Eastern IndiaÂ
In 2022, around 5,000 tonnes of avocados were produced in these areas.Â
Why just these areas?Â
Well, avocados are high maintenance when it comes to production. They need:
Warm climate between 10-30°C (with some rainfall in summer)
6-8 hours of sunlight daily
1,000 - 1,300 millimeters of rain every year, on average
2,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilo of avocados - 10 times of water needed to produce a kilo of tomatoes!
These climatic conditions make it difficult to produce avocados at scale.
Due to low domestic supply and high import prices, avocados have become a luxury fruit in India.
A single avocado costs Rs.150 - Rs. 200!Â
They are mostly sold at high-end cafes at high-price points.
Sounds too firangi?Â
Well, you can add some desi tadka to make avocado bhel, chutney and avocado lassi!Â
Avocado still has a long way to hit the Indian streets - with increased domestic production, will the price of avocado come down?Â
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