Avocadonomics In Thailand

[Jingthing]

Avocados, like bananas, go ripe and rot and become useless. Even too soft and and rotten for guacamole. Actually really soft bananas can be used in pies and such, but rotten avocados ... nada.

It is so common here to observe entire trays of soft, rotten avocados sitting there for days and obviously not selling. A waste.

Now I have seen this happen in the US, but not very often. In the US, if a tray of avocados had reached ripeness and was about to go off, grocers usually put them on radical price specials to move them out, I have seen as cheap as 5 pieces for one dollar.

Avocado prices are always seasonal, here, the US, Australia, I would imagine anywhere they are grown/marketed. This is another issue. Why let these beauties rot and keep the price at 50 baht per, when if they put them on special during peak ripeness for say 20 or 30 baht they would have likely sold out?

Now I know avocados are an exotic item here to Thais, but I do wonder about the economics of them. If the grocer buys a tray and they all go off and he doesn't sell them, does he have to "eat" all the losses or does the supplier compensate for unsold rotters? Also, while having a tray of 50 baht rotters does imply the grocer overestimated the demand for the product (interestingly, they don't usually seem to have this problem with bananas) why would they choose to take a total loss rather than fire sale price the ripe ones? I suspect the answer is they are afraid they would be damaging their pricing power for the new shipment of non-ripe ones (aside from lack of management) but I would imagine they would make more money in the long run not having to throw out trays of rotters.

Edited October 16, 2008 by Jingthing

[JimsKnight]

Can't win em all man. Go to the nearby 7-11 and get yourself a brewsky.

Just accept such things happen and give yourself a lesser headache.

[jackyseymour]

Avocados, like bananas, go ripe and rot and become useless. Even too soft and and rotten for guacamole. Actually really soft bananas can be used in pies and such, but rotten avocados ... nada.

It is so common here to observe entire trays of soft, rotten avocados sitting there for days and obviously not selling. A waste.

Now I have seen this happen in the US, but not very often. In the US, if a tray of avocados had reached ripeness and was about to go off, grocers usually put them on radical price specials to move them out, I have seen as cheap as 5 pieces for one dollar.

Avocado prices are always seasonal, here, the US, Australia, I would imagine anywhere they are grown/marketed. This is another issue. Why let these beauties rot and keep the price at 50 baht per, when if they put them on special during peak ripeness for say 20 or 30 baht they would have likely sold out?

Now I know avocados are an exotic item here to Thais, but I do wonder about the economics of them. If the grocer buys a tray and they all go off and he doesn't sell them, does he have to "eat" all the losses or does the supplier compensate for unsold rotters? Also, while having a tray of 50 baht rotters does imply the grocer overestimated the demand for the product (interestingly, they don't usually seem to have this problem with bananas) why would they choose to take a total loss rather than fire sale price the ripe ones? I suspect the answer is they are afraid they would be damaging their pricing power for the new shipment of non-ripe ones (aside from lack of management) but I would imagine they would make more money in the long run not having to throw out trays of rotters.

When Has Anyone Here Seen The Thais Firesale ... Anything?

[Vato]

you can freeze avocados and they will stay good, i didnt believe it till i tried it for myself...froze some guacamole

some fire sales i know of:

sandwich store in the emporium supermarket, marked down drastically before closing

JUSCO markets reduce their prices on sunday evening on meat and sushi, sometimes seafood.

[jfchandler]

Simple answer here is... teach Thais to love guacamole....

Presto... rotting avocado problem solved.

[JetsetBkk]

This is clearly a case of grocery racism.

[MKAsok]

This is clearly a case of grocery racism.

I believe the correct term for this is 'gracism.'

[dave111223]

I'm surprised they don't raise the price after the avocados are spoiled. Wouldn't Thai economic logic dictate doing so?

[Jingthing]

Rotten cados cannot be used for guacamole! Or rather they shouldn't be. Rotten ones not only are very soft, they actually smell. The time period from a little soft to rotten is very short, I think less than a day. I do find like bananas you can put the ripe ones or even a little soft in the fridge and delay them rotting alot longer (especially if ripe).

In my experience, the life of the cado:

hard

semi ripe (a day or two from fully ripe)

ripe (a day or two)

a little soft (can be used for guac or really anything, but the time is short)

very soft/ rotten (trays of these can be found at markets in Thailand, still for sale, full price, they should be in the trash!)

Another tip if you don't know it. If you cut a cado in half and store the other half in the fridge, keep the SEED with the stored portion, if you don't it will rot very fast, the seed helps delay the rotting. This really works.

Edited October 16, 2008 by Jingthing

[Koo82]

I guess they don't want the case that customers only buy when the price is down. Buyers will wait for the next discount and they can never sell full price.

[Jingthing]

I guess they don't want the case that customers only buy when the price is down. Buyers will wait for the next discount and they can never sell full price.

Perhaps. Or perhaps they don't understand the product.

When I find a place with hard ones, I stock up because then I can control the ripening myself and have a stock for awhile.

I wouldn't have posted this if I hadn't noticed a pattern of this happening again and again (at least in Pattaya) of looking for avocados and encountering a big tray of rotten ones, and nothing edible to buy. If nothing else, these stores should clear rotten produce from their stock. I don't think they even understand when they are rotten!

I know many Thais have never tried a cado and see them as very exotic and don't understand what to do with them. Eat it like an apple? Anyway, maybe they do sell some of these rotten ones to curious Thais.

BTW, I am talking of course about imported Australian Haas avocados which are the same thing as Mexican or Californian ones. Not the Thai variety which you see sometimes, an inferior product, but when I do see it, it is also quite often offered ROTTEN.

Edited October 16, 2008 by Jingthing

[Gumballl]

I guess they don't want the case that customers only buy when the price is down. Buyers will wait for the next discount and they can never sell full price.

Perhaps. Or perhaps they don't understand the product.

...

You must live in a "city". Thanks, btw, for bringing this topic to light. When I return (from ???) I will bring an Avocado seed and bunches of habanero seeds with me.

They are small enough, that only a "pat" search of my body will reveal them.

If Thailand cannot appreciate an Avocado then so be it. One day they (they gov't) will be wondering why the populace is so interested in chips/dip (that I market).

P.S. The habanero (put a '~'above the 'n') is much more spicier than the normal sh*te seen here in Thailand.

Edited October 16, 2008 by Gumballl

[Lickey]

Regards rotting fruit.. Recently we started selling banana papaya outside our salon, all fresh from our 40rai fruit farm, we pick the best fruits from 1600 banana plants [gas them for quicker ripeness] and yellowing papaya ready for pok pok or som tam, besides the normal bulk farm sales, we some times make 500bht a day.

A regular customer to the salon gets a choice of either free, and new customers depending on what they spend.

The rotting fruit goes back to the farm and is composted along with other kitchen waste, green weeds,chicken crap ect, lot better than binning it.

[Jingthing]

I wonder if Thais could learn to know and love avocados although its hard to imagine how they would go with most Thai dishes. After all tomatoes and chilies started here as foreign exotic foods. I once traveled to Mexico with a Filipino and we found a restaurant that was doing all kinds of fruit smoothies. He persuaded them to make him an avocado smoothie which is something that is popular in the Philippines. It was hilarious. At first they thought he was joking and it took 15 minutes to convince them to really do it. They did it and he found it excellent, but the whole time they were laughing and pointing, and who knows maybe they are still talking about it years later.