Avocado prices hit record high just before the Super Bowl

It’s not really Super Bowl Sunday until someone drops a glob of guacamole on the rug, and this year it’s going to cost a bit more to make it.

• The standard nine-kilogram box of avocados from Mexico’s biggest harvesting region hit a record-high cost of 540 Mexican pesos ($26.23) last week, up from 410 pesos (~$20.25) in February 2021, according to Secretaría de Economía/USDA data reported by Bloomberg. (But FYI: The data only goes back 20 years.)

While supply-chain hiccups have likely contributed to the steep price, the bigger factor is the year-round demand for avocado-toast posts on Instagram: In the last decade, Americans’ per capita consumption of avocados doubled, to nine pounds. In the same period, the number of times your Aunt Gretchen smugly pointed out that it’s a fruit, not a vegetable, tripled.

And that guac’s probable delivery device? Instacart’s top-selling chip for the week ahead of the game last year was Tostitos Scoops, up 60% over the prior week, besting triangle-shaped stalwarts Nacho Cheese Doritos (No. 2) and original Tostitos (No. 3).

Lateral pass: While belts will be loosened to accommodate all that snacking, in another sense, they’ll be tightened. Americans expect to spend an average of $88 on all their game-day activities, down from $108 last year, according to Lending Tree.

+1: Of course, many will watch the Super Bowl just for the ads, where Avocados from Mexico will return with a spot, after taking last year off (to ripen?).

• Also returning, reports Kelsey Sutton over yonder at Marketing Brew: More of the funny, after many commercials struck a somber tone last year because of the Capitol riot and Covid.—AAN