The HAB effect video

Image: The HAB Effect

The Hass Avocado Board (HAB) has launched a new video which highlights the contributions the organisation makes to the industry to support growing avocado consumption in the US.

With the goal of reaching industry members within the supply chain, the video is designed to serve as a resource for fostering a deeper understanding of the work that HAB is doing for the avocado industry in the country.

According to HAB, the video brings to life its two-fold approach which creates the 'HAB Effect' in which the organisation both enables programmes by country of origin organisations and implements programmes that benefit all industry members.

“We are thrilled to share this new video with our industry,” said HAB chairman Jorge Hernandez. “It demonstrates that the avocado industry can count on HAB to be a catalyst for action and a reason to be confident in the future of our business.”

Featured in the video is an interview with Richard Sexton, a professor at the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis, who recently conducted a five-year evaluation of promotion programmes conducted by HAB and its member associations.

The research found that the expansion of sales in the US market had been achieved primarily through rising demand not lower prices, and that the programmes delivered a benefit to cost ratio ranging from 1.6 to 3.6 to the California producers and importers of Hass avocados who funded them.

The video also shares that the average per capita consumption of avocados in the US has grown to 7.1 pounds from 2014 to 2016 compared to just 1.6 pounds in the 1990s, resulting in a 344 per cent growth in consumption.