In 10 years, imports have increased by more than a thousand times, and sales in 8 years have increased by 20,000 times... Perhaps there is no fruit more powerful than avocado, a small green fruit, like a "grenade" detonated the Chinese market.
Why is the mid-to-high-end market obsessed with avocados? Is the fat reduction artifact actually a "heat bomb"? How long can net red avocados still be "red"?
Tie Ding, director of the Agricultural Research Center of Yuanyi Think Tank and editor-in-chief of the Agricultural Ginseng, believes that behind the popularity of avocados is the market outlet for the transformation of domestic lifestyle to healthy diet, and consumers' desire for higher quality beauty products, and to extend the identity of "Internet celebrity" into a truly high-quality, healthy and ecological emerging food.
"Name change + marketing" became a hit
Avocado, also known as avocado, avocado and avocado, etc., native to Colombia, Ecuador to southern Mexico in South America, Mexico sold avocados to the United States in the 90s, cultivated in California on a large scale, and is now widely cultivated in more than 30 countries, in addition to edible and medicinal value, avocados can also be processed into mechanical lubricants, ointments, etc.
Avocados were initially produced in Mexico in large quantities but at a low price, and it was the marketing strategy of the United States that really transformed avocados into high-end health foods.
Because the skin of avocados is rough and dark brown, which is somewhat similar to the skin of crocodiles, it was earlier called "avocado". In 1961, in order to promote avocados, California set up an avocado advisory committee, the committee and growers believe that the name is not high-end elegant enough to make avocado not well-known, combined with the origin of avocado is Mexico, in the language of an ancient ethnic group in central Mexico - the Aztec to name avocado avocado, so that exotic and mysterious history become the background color of the product.
then used the celebrity effect to throw a large number of advertisements on TV shows for marketing, advertising in The New Yorker and Vogue magazines and calling them "aristocrats in salad fruit"; Use premium ingredients like lobster in avocado recipes. In the 80s, the avocado industry funded experts to study how avocados are good for health, and joined forces with Harvard University to promote a high-fat, low-carbohydrate Mediterranean-style diet. In 1995, marketing at a public relations agency launched a wife selection campaign for the avocado mascot "Mr. Ripe" to promote a healthy eating lifestyle in California and associate avocados with a healthy lifestyle.
By running an ad at a Super Bowl professional football tournament – describing a "secret society" that keeps many shocking secrets, such as faking moon landings and encounters with Bigfoot, the most important secret they guard: avocados rich in high-quality fat are healthy. The ads show members of these secret societies scrambling to eat nachos dipped in avocado jam, which is very interesting. The athletes' recipes were also adapted into avocados: 4 avocados, lemon juice, garlic, onions, tomatoes, cumin celery and chili sauce, and by giving samples to sports journalists, the report appeared that "millions more avocados were consumed in this competition", among other things.
With the attention of the football game, avocado became a hit and became a healthy food that the middle class rushed to buy. The USDA-funded Agricultural Resource Center research team revealed that in 1989 the average U.S. avocado consumption was only 1.1 pounds, but that number has grown by leaps and bounds, reaching 7 pounds per person in the U.S. in 2014. In 2016, global avocado production was around 5.46 million tonnes, up nearly 28% from five years earlier. Production is expected to rise to 6.42 million tonnes by 2020, with global avocado consumption remaining around 20% in terms of annual growth rates.
Healthy fruits are actually "calorie bombs"?
Avocado shakes, avocado salads, avocado meal replacements... In this era of national fitness, drying meat and sweat is no longer enough to prove your health, and the daily "fat reduction meal" is the key, after all, three points of training and seven points of eating, a variety of Internet red vegetables and fruits have become a daily diet, especially as the first net red avocado in the fitness food industry, it is an essential food on the table of talents.
Do avocados, which are hyped as "healthy fruits", really live up to their name? It is interesting to analyze its nutritional content.
The nutritional composition of avocado is very characteristic, its first attribute is extremely high fat content, and the second attribute is that these fats are mainly unsaturated fats; Followed by rich protein and high content of sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium and other elements, to 100 grams of avocado contains 6.7 grams of dietary fiber, while apples with skin only 2.4 grams; avocados contain 485 mg of potassium, it is generally believed that bananas with rich potassium are only 358 mg, potassium can maintain healthy blood pressure levels. Because its nutritional value is comparable to butter, it even has the reputation of "forest butter".
Although avocado is known as a "superfruit" that can lose fat and lose weight, it is actually a "calorie bomb". Avocados contain nearly 20 times more fat per 100 grams than apples and 8-16 times more energy than leafy vegetables or melons, and if you eat avocados, be sure to cut back on other fat sources to stay healthy.
To some extent, the fat content of avocado is not inferior to meat, but most of its fat is monounsaturated fatty acids, similar to olive oil, and rich in dietary fiber is conducive to enhancing satiety - which is the two main reasons why it is regarded as a healthy food, and it is very suitable for weight loss people to replace staple foods with avocados.
A new favorite of light luxury at the table
Before China's accession to the WTO, avocados were not well known to everyone, and they were sold for 80 yuan a piece when they were first imported, and the taste of avocados was weak, and it did not meet the Chinese's "sweet, crisp and juicy" eating habits for fruits, and consumers did not buy it. However, with the development of domestic society, affected by the trend of fat loss life abroad, through marketing in high-end shopping malls, avocado has become a highly sought after "super fruit", in recent years in the high-end table light luxury new favorite, but also the protagonist of the young new class of healthy light food.
The 2022 China Fresh Avocado Report released by the US Department of Agriculture shows that China's demand for high-quality fresh avocados continues to grow, and China's avocado production and imports are expected to continue to increase. As consumers become more familiar with avocados and become more health-conscious, the growth of the avocado industry is driven, and the largest consumer group is women under the age of 35 in first-tier cities. Middle-aged and young people under the age of 45 account for 90% of the total consumer group, middle-aged people and consumers in third- and fourth-tier cities are increasing their recognition of avocados year by year, and the demand for avocados in the domestic market is increasing.
There are small areas of avocado cultivation in Yunnan, Guangdong, Fujian and other places in the mainland, but the early avocado varieties are not good, and the planting technology is monopolized by foreign giants, resulting in the long-term dependence of avocados in the domestic market on imports. Since 2005, the mainland has successively imported avocados from Mexico, Chile, Peru and New Zealand, and the import volume of avocados in 2011 was 31.8 tons, and in 2021 it has reached 41,300 tons, and the import volume has increased by more than 1,000 times in 10 years. Peruvian avocados have always accounted for more than half of China's total imports, importing about 31,400 tons of avocados from January to September 2022, of which 25,600 tons came from Peru.
According to a report by the Financial Business Data Center (CBNData), the sales scale of avocados ranked seventh in the category of imported fruits in 2019, and consumers have a strong demand for health and personal image. Making baby food supplements, fitness, replacing breakfast, and beauty are the four main consumption scenarios of avocados. In addition, the social and sharing properties of avocados are also prominent. Xiaohongshu has 1.98 million + notes for the keyword "avocado", 220,000+ notes for "avocado salad", and 10,000+ notes for "bibimbap". Compared with fresh food, fat reduction and light food is its "main battlefield", bright colors, exquisite plating, and avocado-related topics convey social signals, flaunting "healthy" and "fashionable" personal image and life attitude.
Delicious and good-looking, the increase in social recognition has promoted the production of avocados to rise rapidly, this small green fruit soon became the "light of the middle class", from 2018 to 2021 avocado imports increased year after year, in 2022 due to the reduction in Mexican avocado production led to a 6% decline in imports, just made up by the production of domestic avocados, which means that the mainland avocado market space is still very large.
2018-2022 export volume of major exporting countries of avocados
With the large-scale cultivation of avocados in Africa, in June 2022, the General Administration of Customs of China issued for the first time to allow the import of Kenyan fresh avocados that meet quarantine requirements, and African countries such as South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are also actively preparing to export avocados to China, Tanzania currently produces an average of 47,000 tons of avocados available for export per year, the actual export volume is about 12,000 tons, and the export volume is expected to increase to 20,000 tons by 2026. The diversification of avocado production areas is constantly expanding, and the competition in the mainland avocado market will be more fierce in the future.
How long can avocados be "red"?
Although some people criticize the popularity of avocados all rely on marketing, but if the level of social development is not enough, no matter how good marketing can not create purchasing power, so behind the identity of avocado "Internet celebrity" is people's living standards have improved, eating is no longer so entangled in cost performance, and they are willing to pay the cost to explore and try new foods. Avocados have been continuously innovated and transformed by Chinese consumers, resulting in "avocado Chinese new food" such as avocado tofu, Chinese cold avocado, avocado fried vegetables, etc., which can also be integrated with traditional Chinese dim sum to make avocado crisp and avocado mung bean cake.
Tie Ding, director of the Agricultural Research Center of Yuanyi Think Tank, believes that the healthy and quality of the concept of life has led to the dual development of diet and social networking, and the popularity of avocados just reveals people's new enthusiasm for beauty products, and then it is necessary to develop the domestic avocado production chain, docking technology, improve quality, and shape the brand, and avocados will become more and more "red".
Resources:
[1] Daily food: The avocado of the popular circle of friends, its upper routine is very deep
[2] Titanium Media: Why is avocado popular in China, the "exclusive" net red fruit of the middle class?