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JESSICA MORRIS
Smashed avo on toast fans may be in for a long winter, with avocados disappearing off restaurant menus in Wairarapa.
Avocado prices have shot to new heights, forcing restaurant and cafe owners to pull them from their menus completely.
Avocado prices around the country rose by 37 per cent last month after a smaller than average harvest, Statistics NZ said on Wednesday.
The average price for a 200g avocado rose to $5.06 in May, the highest price the fruit has reached since Statistics NZ started recording them.
Ten O’Clock Cookie general manager Monique Kloeg said it was the first winter that they would completely remove avocados from their menu.
“We get our avocados from Gisborne and they said they just picked the last of them off their trees,” she said.
“You can’t make your profit margins if your avocados are $5 [each], when we can usually get them for $1.”
The rocketing prices were likely to see the fruit off the café’s menu for the next few months, she said.
Statistics New Zealand prices manager Matthew Haigh said the price of avocados was largely impacted by seasonality.
“Typically, avocado prices peak in July and August, as the main harvest season is from August to March.”
According to the New Zealand Avocado Growers Association, the harvest was around half the size of the previous year’s.
Readily available at $3 or better. Good size and quality