Africa’s Coffee Producers are Pivoting - To Avocados

I thought the “avocado toast” trend didn’t exist outside of the narrow world of food writers. I was wrong. It appears to have also caught on in East Asia, a population which in my experience really, really hate avocados. (And olives.) Of course, I remember when China also found cheese disgusting.

Yesterday’s post looked at the reasons for falling coffee prices. Today we look at the consequences of falling coffee prices, namely a change in supply. Coffee and avocados apparently have similar environmental requirements. Demand for avocados, particularly the Hass variety, have resulted in conditions where avocados are more profitable than coffee. So producers pull out (some of) the coffee trees and plant avocados. 

The really interesting part is further down in the story. Most products, agricultural or industrial, require at least some unique technology and a great deal of unique expertise. You’ve seen the big, burlap bags used for the export of specialty coffees? You can’t ship avocados in big sacks. They’ll be guacamole in no time. The upshot is that commodity producers, especially those at a near subsistence existence, can’t afford to change what they do. 

(BTW, this is also a factor for farmers in the developed world. We talk easily about niche markets and specialized production but the reality of moving from field corn and soybeans to amaranth, hops, and organic edamame is very challenging.)