The world's largest avocado exporting countries in 2018 were Mexico, the Netherlands, and Peru, which were followed by Spain, Chile, the United States, Kenya, South Africa, New Zealand, and Colombia.
During the past year, Mexican avocado exports amounted to 2.392 billion dollars, while the Netherlands exported 734 million dollars.
Avocado and external purchases
World imports are growing very fast, at an interannual rate of 18% in the last five years. In 2018, the world imported 2.5 million tons of avocados worth $ 6.1 billion dollars. The United States, the Netherlands, and France account for more than 55% of total world imports. In 2018, these three countries imported 1.5 million tons of fresh or dried avocados worth 3.5 billion dollars.
The world's total avocado production is estimated at 4.1 million tons, according to FAO data from 2017, and the main producers are Mexico, Peru, and Indonesia. These three countries account for 68.4% of all production or 2.8 million tons per year.
Production
Since avocado is native to South America, tropical fruit production in Latin America and the Caribbean accounts for approximately 70% of world production, which reached an annual average of 4.3 million tons during the 2016-2018 period.
The avocado continues to be a highly demanded tropical fruit in the import markets, particularly in the United States and the European Union, where annual per capita availability in 2018 reached 3.1 kg and 1.2 kg, respectively.
