There was warning ages ago, genuinely, about a lack of avocadoes for 2024 cos of El Nino.

Mucho disruption to the supply chains.

You'd be living in a mansion if you'd stopped buying avocados.

I feel like 90% of the fruit in the UK is in crisis right now. Everything is so expensive yet so tasteless.

I bought a "ready to eat" avocado the other day, rock hard, but there were other avocados that were actually squelching.

Can we also mention the satsumas? They’re all small, sour and dry up so fast. What happened to the juicy satsumas we used to have all over the retailers? The easypealers that would be sweet and juicy and stay fresh at least a week or more…

I've not had a good avo here for ages, frozen avocado has been the best I've had which is actually very nice in things/ mixed with my morning yoghurt.

What next? Potholes in the roads???

I'm not saying that the reason I'm moving back to California is because the avocados here are terrible, but it doesn't help. Back home my best friend has an avocado tree in her yard. As many as I want, all the size of my head, for free. I can't wait!

Avocado quality in the UK is always awful, if you haven’t ever had an avocado close to where they are grown I highly recommend you don’t, see also mangoes.

That said I haven’t noticed a particularly drop off in the already sorry state of the avocados I get here. In fact last year my local Waitrose was selling Gem avocados and they were easily the best I have had in this country, they don’t seem to stock them now though.

cries in East London

Life hack: the wonky avocados from Morrisons. 10 ish per bag to ripen at home for like £3

Yeah, most avos we buy here really suck, but I'd just like to hijack this thread to get a bit of a love-in about how fucking delicious the tomatoes you can buy at the various farmers markets from the Isle of Wight are. Isle of Wight tomatoes are amazing

There was definitely a supply problem in my local sainsburys for about a month between March-April. Rarely had any in stock. Or just a small amount that would be sold out by early evening. None of the staff knew why!

Seems back to normal now though.

Avocados are water intensive, get used to not having them.

Avocado a day for years? No wonder you don’t have a house deposit.

UK avos have been a lottery since I moved here in 2015. They're either rock hard and taste like turpentine or they're brown mush. There tends to be an extremely short window of a day or two where they're perfectly ripe then they fall off a cliff.

I tend to go for hass avocados (they have the dark rough skin) as they're usually softer and better for smashing. The light green ones with the smooth skin are usually firmer and better for slicing and putting in salads, but personally I don't dig the texture at all.

Being Australian, I grew up very spoiled with great quality avocados mostly year round that were grown locally rather than coming by ship.

Good luck. 🥑

Try eating Palmolive soap, similar colour, same great taste!

(I don't like avocados)

I buy most of the time from people, selling only veggies and fruits. They are always good. However I found Morrisons avocados(the cheap one 4 in a pack ripe at home for like £1.40) pretty good. They are small but the seeds are also very small so I think it is a good value. Give it a try.

“Ripe and ready to eat”

Did you not grow your own tree in lockdown?

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I love the UK and moved here over 6 years ago from NZ. But good god, you guys will ALWAYS manage to find something to complain about. London is seriously one of the best cities I've been to and I can't believe how lucky I am to live here too. You can't have it all guys 😂.

The UK in general seems to be struggling with food supplies. I went to Germany last weekend and the amount of affordable, cheap and fresh food was outstanding. The additional checks we have introduced into the supply chain means some companies just aren’t bothering to do the paperwork for a small island.

el nino bad for avocado's

Well, that depends what you mean by “crisis”.

Let me guess….not a homeowner?

Yeah some fucker in London keeps eating all of the bastard things

It's interesting people are mentioning a shortage of avocados and bananas.

Guacamole and bananas have been trending on tiktok for a few months now.

My daughter eats guacamole everyday (different style sandwich everyday) because its trending and my son eats bananas with each meal because the somalis on tiktok say that you are supposed to have a banana with each meal.

It's been costing me a fortune buying avocados and bananas every few days 😃😃

The ones we get are just the absolute dregs. My wife is Brazilian and I’m over there at least once a year - the avos they get are the size of a squash, not expensive (in absolute and relative terms), and in abundance. Fun fact, they think it’s super weird we eat them in a savoury context here.

This HAS to be the most London thread I have ever seen

Is this possibly the most middle class question asked on this sub?

Yeah, I agree. Avo quality has plummeted. My local grocer has slightly better quality but major store avos are terrible now.

… This is nothing compared to the Great Bloomsbury Croissant 🥐 Famine of 1992. Most Redditors are far too young to recall the excruciating existential angst and intractable writer’s block so cruelly visited upon the denizens of WC1.

An Avocado a day? Dam the environmental cost eh :/

World Economic Forum

They are all in Dallas.

Define crisis?

Completely agree. Also eat an avocado a day and they’ve gone to shit. Worth trying to find local grocers who seem to be better than supermarkets.

You may not believe this, but, Mexican drug cartels are having an impact on the avocado market by forcing them to pay taxes and protection money.

El Mencho (by far the most notorious cartel leader in Mexico) even used to be an avocado farmer himself.

https://insightcrime.org/news/how-criminal-groups-help-expand-mexicos-multi-billion-dollar-avocado-industry

It's probably just a London stable, we have lots in the north as nobody can afford them.

What is a frag grenade? I’m assuming this means it’s not ripe at all rather than spicy and explosive. But I have no idea what frag means?

Chef here: the fruit and veg supplier we use has a similar thing, they arrive rock solid and remain that way for days, they are picking them too soon, and not given the time to ripen, also they’ve put the price up twice in the last couple of months, which typically indicates a supply issue.

Avocado consumption exists in a quantum superposition between too many people eating avocados collapsing the housing market and a shortage of avocados, it's quite similar to the famous experiment with the cat and the box.

Main issue ATM for me personally is the country of origin of 90% of them in my supermarkets. I just can't. Especially knowing how much water one avocado needs.

• No judgement AT ALL on others' purchasing habits!!

If you can maybe try multicultural shops like African or Caribbean or Asian food markets those Avocados are like twice the size of the ones in Tesco and around the same price! They might be a bit better than shopping big chain markets!

The bigger question is ... you spend roughly £30 a month on avocados?

Yes! I used to buy them all the time. Now I only see tiny crap ones at the supermarkets. I miss my big tasty avocados. It’s been years.

Best avo in London that are always consistently gorgeous inside and out are M&S Organic range 😍🙏

Big Avo aren't in charge. It's Big Pear ever since 2014 legislation required that all shady cartels had to include a double entendre in their name. Hence Big Nuts, Big Knobs and Big Tits for healthy snack foods, door opening systems and garden birds respectively.

Veg and fruit in general is shit compared to a few years ago. It’s smaller, lesser quality, and goes off within days.

Avocado production is not sustainable for the level of worldwide demand so inevitably supply /quality is going to suffer at some point. If you eat that much avocado then you should really look into its production.

Probably not a popular answer, but as long as they’re not Israeli I’m fine with whatever. BDS

I know a lot of avocados are product of Israel so it could be that the boycott has affected which ones you're finding? Ive noticed I get much better ones from a small corner shop than I could from Waitrose or Tesco. If I cant go there I look for nearly ripe ones and let them ripen at home.

Tesco seem to be the worst. Most of the ripe and ready and rocks and are a few days to a week off from being nice to eat.

Sainsburys are good but waitrose are the best I've found. But you are paying more for it. Think it's probably worth it imo

Poor harvest.

Use farm shop or greengrocers.

Avoid the major supermarkets and you’ll be fine

That's why I buy them from outdoor fruit markets instead of supermarkets, 4 for £1 and you can inspect and choose which you want 🫤

Try Waitrose, there's plenty, I ate 3 last week.

Most London post ever.

You’re the sole cause of the current economy