California avocado grower Enrico Ferro says market conditions are making production economically unviable despite strong orchard performance. Ferro, who has grown avocados in Valley Center for more than two decades, says his orchard is carrying one of its largest crops — but import competition and rising production costs are squeezing returns to the point where growing domestically barely pencils out.
This tension between California domestic supply and high-volume Mexican imports is a long-running structural issue, but it's particularly acute right now given the volume of fruit in the market and the ongoing push by California growers for a seasonal tariff-rate quota on Mexican avocados — a proposal that has been formally submitted but not acted on.
Buyers should be aware that California grower pressure on this issue is intensifying. Any regulatory movement on avocado import quotas would directly affect sourcing strategies, so it's worth staying close to how the seasonal quota proposal progresses.