Is there a price you won't pay for an imported off season avocado in Thailand?

[tropo]

5 hours ago, Thian said:

I guess you saw the hass avo's from thailand...they are tiny and in a bag with 3-4 of them together. They can be good but many times picked to early and they will never ripen well or are brown already.

 

I also won't pay more than 80 for sure, actually we only buy them at the Makro for 59 a piece or not at all. They cost 44 baht in Europe in the supermarket.

 

Now i only buy them from Makro, from other shops they can be rotting already, had that many times. And the ones from Thailand i don't buy at all, they won't ripen well or you have to be very lucky.

I've bought too many expensive avocados that I've had to throw away. I'm done with them. I've never tried the Thai Hass avocados, which by the sound of it are always hit and miss - but cheaper.

[Thian]

14 hours ago, tropo said:

I've bought too many expensive avocados that I've had to throw away. I'm done with them. I've never tried the Thai Hass avocados, which by the sound of it are always hit and miss - but cheaper.

There are also very big thai avocado's, they're not so fat but if you have a good one they can be nice and good for guacamole.

 

One day in Tops they had hundreds of avo's which were all far too soft and rotting, they had them in the promotion for 70 that day....i bet they were all brown.  

I tried growing avo's myself but in BKK it's too warm, they won't bloom. I had many varieties.

[Jingthing]

That's a pet peeve of mine. Places that have them normally for let's say 100 and then they're left with a big tray of them that are ripe same day eating. Rare places will discount let's say to 70 but most don't and a day or so later you've got a tray of worthless rotten garbage.

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[Skeptic7]

Don't like paying over ฿65, but will. Not paying ฿90.

[jimster]

6 hours ago, Thian said:

There are also very big thai avocado's, they're not so fat but if you have a good one they can be nice and good for guacamole.

 

One day in Tops they had hundreds of avo's which were all far too soft and rotting, they had them in the promotion for 70 that day....i bet they were all brown.  

I tried growing avo's myself but in BKK it's too warm, they won't bloom. I had many varieties. 

Avocadoes are a tropical plant. They will definitely bloom in Bangkok. However, you may struggle to get a tree grown from seed to produce fruit, or it will take many years.

[Bung]

If the price of avocado's bothers you why not just stop eating them? 

[Jingthing]

11 minutes ago, Bung said:

If the price of avocado's bothers you why not just stop eating them? 

I will stop eating them if I have to pay 100 per fruit but that hasn't happened yet. OK with you? 

I stopped drinking wine years ago here because of the prices and unwillingness to drink overpriced plonk. 

[Ulysses G.]

3 hours ago, Bung said:

If the price of avocado's bothers you why not just stop eating them? 

Because I LOVE them. That makes it hard to stop.

[Thian]

8 hours ago, jimster said:

Avocadoes are a tropical plant. They will definitely bloom in Bangkok. However, you may struggle to get a tree grown from seed to produce fruit, or it will take many years.

Have you seen a fruiting avocado in BKK?  I haven't and i didn't have seedlings because they suck, i had grafted varieties from overseas, west-indian avo's, huge tree.

 

My tree's bloomed when i bought them so i guess they came from the mountains somewhere. I waited 5 years to see blooms but never got them.

[despicable alien]

bought one of these overpriced avos the other day. havent had any in a while because all the had was small at big price, anyhow they had a largish fuerte for about 80 baht so i bought it. was tasteless so havent ventured to the remaining small ones
shan't buy any more till the price drops and perhaps different type

[tropo]

14 hours ago, Bung said:

If the price of avocado's bothers you why not just stop eating them? 

I took your advice. I stopped buying the odd one here and there because I ended up buying too many bad ones. Good ones were about 50/50 even if you know avocados and how to pick them. The safest option is to buy them rock hard and ripen them at home, but even that doesn't assure a good one. For example, if you throw away an 89 baht small avocado and try again, it has cost you 178 baht.

[tutsiwarrior]

best to go to Vietnam to have an 'avocado holiday', even in provincial supermarkets there are bins full of the delicious fruit for about $1 per kilo...no haas or any western variety that I could recognize but oily and fragrant, purple colored skin, probably introduced by the french in colonial times...get yerself some nice fresh baguettes and slather those mothers and yer away...excellent with a nice vietnamese coffee at the hotel breakfast buffet before ye start on the pho...

 

 

 

 

[Jingthing]

They've got Penpol Thai nothing like Hass cados now for sale cheap at Central. Very little flavor or fat in these. Mentioning because some cado virgins might not understand what they're buying. They have uses but definitely inferior and different. Are there really Haas like Thai cados at Big C now? I'm skeptical.

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[tropo]

The current price of imported Hass avocados is heavily influenced by their past overpricing. I've seen bins full of them rotting away in various supermarkets, basically, because they were way overpriced, to begin with. They try to cover their wastage by constantly upping the price, hoping to compensate... but making the situation even worse. There may soon be a day when they are very hard to find anywhere at any price.

 

I like avocados, but can take them or leave them. I don't see them as a luxury item, which the current price indicates they are.

[Ulysses G.]

12 hours ago, tropo said:

 The safest option is to buy them rock hard and ripen them at home, but even that doesn't assure a good one.

I am in America now and eat them all the time. Hard or soft, never get the ones that turn dark brown when they ripen, like in Thailand. Not sure why.

[Damrongsak]

 

Here in the US, Haas avocados in season sometimes sell for 15-20 Baht each, occasionally less.  30 Baht is up there. 

Edited June 29, 2018 by Damrongsak

[john donut]

vientiane: got two of those blackskin ones for 9000 kip display price was 10000kip/kilo
got taste.
in the big out of sight open air market before sun shines on it behind / near the CBS CENTRAL BUS STATION. was crowded with loas, no farang in sight
daytime still has stall undercover but no where near the activity in dawn time

check it out prices are about half of what you get elsewhere around vientiane

[pgrahmm]

Might want to check your local markets gents....

 

My wife just picked up some Haas look alikes for 30B per kg/6 per kg....

 

She whipped up some guacamole & it's ok....Not Haas - but not as bad as the Mexican off season ones we used to get in Calif.....

About 70% of the regular Haas on the taste scale.....Soft & creamy but not the stronger avocado taste of a Haas....

[Jingthing]

Where exactly?

It would also be helpful to see the actual fruit before cutting.

 

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[pgrahmm]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Where exactly?

It would also be helpful to see the actual fruit before cutting.

 

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We live in Hang Dong, south of CM.....

She picked them up at our local  7 day market on the 108/Hang Dong Rd....

I'm guessing they are probably available at the other full time Thai markets....

[pgrahmm]

Sorry JT....

This is the best I can do as she used them all....I grabbed a couple of skins out of the kitchen bin for the photo op.....

They wanted to surprise me with the guac & homemade chips, so they went straight to the kitchen when they came home....

[Jingthing]

As I assumed. I'm buying Thai cados at Central now, cheap of course. They call them Penpol type whatever that is that look like that, probably the same or similar. Notice the smooth skin? Notice the SHAPE? They are lower fat and little flavor. Those are definitely NOT the Haas or Haas similar Thai grown cados that are sold here for a short season annually. Those are much more similar to what Americans call Florida variety (INFERIOR). 

 

Another member reported recently buying Haas similar Thai cados at Big C recently. As I said before, I find that hard to believe. I haven't yet checked Big C but if they were in season they would also be at other stores by now, and they aren't. 

 

So now is a season where we have a choice between imported Haas similar for about 70 to 100 baht per piece depending and also these NOT HAAS much cheaper inferior Thai cados. 

 

But the sweet spot in Thailand is when there are lower cost domestic Haas similar cados. I think not now. I forget what the season is for those, does anyone know? 

Edited July 7, 2018 by Jingthing

[pgrahmm]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

As I assumed. I'm buying cados at Central now, cheap of course. They call them Penpol type whatever that is. Notice the smooth skin? They are lower fat and little flavor. Those are definitely NOT the Haas or Haas similar Thai grown cados that are sold here for a short season annually. Those are much more similar to what Americans call Florida variety (INFERIOR). 

OK....

They did well enough for a guacamole mix....

We'll get our fix on our next annual stateside RV trip....We stop & stock up at the fresh produce stands as we travel along....

Easy to do in the west coast states....We hit them a lot during our 3 months there; as well as  whatever specialties each area has to offer....

 

 

[Jingthing]

I use those types too. I just bought a bag yesterday. Even though inferior I can use them in similar ways to Haas, they're better than nothing, and I save the money on buying the imports.

But for the rare person that hasn't tasted avocados don't judge that with anything other than Haas or Haas similar. Haas type are why so many people are crazy about cados. 

Edited July 7, 2018 by Jingthing

[Ulysses G.]

12 hours ago, Jingthing said:

 

But for the rare person that hasn't tasted avocados don't judge that with anything other than Haas or Haas similar. Haas type are why so many people are crazy about cados. 

For what it is worth, I was living on Catalina Island for a while and the local barber shop was selling huge avocados that looked like the average Thai ones for $1.00. I avoided them for a while, but eventually found out that they were pretty much as good as Haas, cheaper and three  times the size.

[Jingthing]

57 minutes ago, Ulysses G. said:

For what it is worth, I was living on Catalina Island for a while and the local barber shop was selling huge avocados that looked like the average Thai ones for $1.00. I avoided them for a while, but eventually found out that they were pretty much as good as Haas, cheaper and three  times the size.

It's not worth much. There are many, many specific varieties of avocado. If you thought they tasted pretty much like Haas, they weren't anything like the "Penpol" Thai ones I'm eating now. 

[RamenRaven]

Markets in Chiang Mai sell them for as cheap as 30 baht per kilogram. They are cultivated by hill tribe farmers in Chiang Dao district. Get to know the avocado sellers in the markets. You can even pre-order from them.

[tutsiwarrior]

On 7/7/2018 at 1:53 PM, pgrahmm said:

Sorry JT....

This is the best I can do as she used them all....I grabbed a couple of skins out of the kitchen bin for the photo op.....

They wanted to surprise me with the guac & homemade chips, so they went straight to the kitchen when they came home....

 

they look a lot like the ones in Vietnam that I described earlier which don't have the robust flavor of the haas I useta get in California...but still good to spread on any kinda crusty bread...probably do an acceptable guacamole mashed with a couple of dollops of bottled salsa and a squeeze of lemon juice...

 

'aguacate' in mexico and Guatemala...'palta' in chile and bolivia...endless barroom arguments about the nomenclature all over the world...'hey, man...I'm half bolivian and you trine to tell me what them things are called???'...and my dearly beloved auntie Alicia furrows her brow and sez: 'tutsitito, no hay que ser maleducado...'

 

maleducado...avocado...getddit? yuk, yuk, yuk...?

 

 

Edited September 5, 2018 by tutsiwarrior

[tutsiwarrior]

On 6/28/2018 at 7:02 PM, jimster said:

Avocadoes are a tropical plant. They will definitely bloom in Bangkok. However, you may struggle to get a tree grown from seed to produce fruit, or it will take many years.

avocados grow well in arid climes like in southern california but that's not to say that they don't grow well otherwise...when I was young our neighbor had a magnificent tree with loadsa fruit...alas I only acquired the taste when I was older as we useta get bags of fruit every year and my mom being a south american loved it...dad was a southern boy from Tennessee and thought them to be a communist mischief...

 

the neighbor was a a scientist/engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory nearby and tended the tree himself...heavy on the scientific technique...his daughter and my little sister were pals...back in them days everyone had a sprouting avocado in their kitchen with toothpicks stuck into the seed inna jar with water...but ye needed to look after them properly for them to give fruit when planted...sometimes as early as 3 years if done properly...the plants need a lot of water, good irrigation, proper soil, etc...

 

I woke up to avocados when I discovered that was what guacamole was made of...whole and mashed avocados with onions, chile and tomatoes don't look the same...in Chile and Bolivia an 'ensalada de palta' is simply a sliced fruit with some oil and vinegar, salt and pepper...they never heard of guacamole...