Are we headed for the 500 baht avocado? Adios to green bliss ...

[8OA8]

Been growing my own and expanding the number of trees in my orchard out of Chiang Mai as well. Advertised seedlings in a Facebook page and sold some but the response wasn't astoudning. Mix of Thai and westerners buying. Pics are of seedlings and fruit on the "mother" tree...

Is this something that I could grow on my condo balcony in Bangkok?

If yes what's the yield.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

[Fallangpakwan]

Been growing my own and expanding the number of trees in my orchard out of Chiang Mai as well. Advertised seedlings in a Facebook page and sold some but the response wasn't astoudning. Mix of Thai and westerners buying. Pics are of seedlings and fruit on the "mother" tree...

Is this something that I could grow on my condo balcony in Bangkok?

If yes what's the yield.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

We are in SriRacha area and have 2 plants in pots, very easy to grow but they will never be fruiting, they have to be big trees before that happens, however a neighbor is growing one in ground that is now a reasonable size, doubt though it will ever fruit; too hot here.

[NickJ]

My family owned a commercial avacado orchard when I was a kid....used to squeeze the rotten ones for the seeds....messy but fun work for a ten year old and his friends.

......your lucy you dont love artichokes as much as they are and have been 500b here for years....tiny horrible little things.

[bubba]

My favourite is toast with Vegimite on and spread the Advo over it, lovely.

Vegimite is now owned by yanks…., whatever…, sometimes I'll thinly spread Promite(although also loaded with salt) on my wholemeal toast first then spread the Avo…, I don't mind that for a change.

Vegemite has been in a JV with the American Kraft Foods since 1925. I suppose I am not sufficiently anti-yank to refuse vegemite on my toast. Also, Promite (MasterFoods) has been fully owned by the American company Mars since 1967, so there goes that one as well.

So you do not fly on Boeing aircraft either, right?

[connda]

I haven't had one since I left the US 8 years ago. Every one I've seen is hard as a rock. Not worth wasting money on. That's like buying topical fruit in the US: except for bananas, they're usually not ripe and not worth buying either.

[avidflyer]

Avocados in southern California (the origin of 60% of U.S. avs) are way up to around $1 a piece now days and smaller than before. I'm guessing its a water price factor. But even the bulk pulp from Mexico (Hass, very good) is way up in price. I have been told that bulk pulp from Australia is being exported but I have not heard of it here. Last I heard Carl's Jr.'s was sourcing their guacamole in the U.S.

I always bring several packs of the frozen Costco guacamole (Mexican, Hass) back from the states. Excellent quality.

BTY, avs at Friendship Market were 78 baht yesterday.

[techboy]

Bliss? Yuck! I can't stand those things. Anyway what is all the speculative babble for? There is a drought in California this year. Not the dynamics to create a "regular thing". Read the news for pete's sake! Yuck .

[Tchooptip]

My favourite is toast with Vegimite on and spread the Advo over it, lovely.

I don't know... but sure he is definitely not alone since even Google knows it, but no need to ask this gentleman where are you from

[stoli]

Been growing my own and expanding the number of trees in my orchard out of Chiang Mai as well. Advertised seedlings in a Facebook page and sold some but the response wasn't astoudning. Mix of Thai and westerners buying. Pics are of seedlings and fruit on the "mother" tree...

Is this something that I could grow on my condo balcony in Bangkok?

If yes what's the yield.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

My avocado trees would get about 15 feet tall before they would produce. How tall is your balcony? I have grown them from seed here, but they won't fit on my balcony. I give them as gifts to those that have land.

[Tazwa]

One of Australia's biggest avocado growing regions was recently decimated by a cyclone. Even here in Oz, the price skyrocketed. I'm not sure how many avocados are imported by Thailand from Oz but when the supply side is diminished the price always goes up. Bananas also increased in price but I assume Thailand doesn't need to import these.

http://www.farmweekly.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/olwyn-smashes-carnarvon-bananas/2726598.aspx

[Jingthing]

Avocados in southern California (the origin of 60% of U.S. avs) are way up to around $1 a piece now days and smaller than before. I'm guessing its a water price factor. But even the bulk pulp from Mexico (Hass, very good) is way up in price. I have been told that bulk pulp from Australia is being exported but I have not heard of it here. Last I heard Carl's Jr.'s was sourcing their guacamole in the U.S.

I always bring several packs of the frozen Costco guacamole (Mexican, Hass) back from the states. Excellent quality.

BTY, avs at Friendship Market were 78 baht yesterday.

Thanks for that.

I think the premise of my math assumptions from the article is that good imported cados in Thailand are going to be at least double, and often TRIPLE the U..S. price.

So right now 32 baht in the U.S. and 78 to 98 in Thailand.

So the articles suggests U.S. people are going to look forward to six dollar cados. About 192 baht. x3 is well OVER 500 baht.

Thus I think my mention of the possibility of 500 baht cados in Thailand is very credible, even conservative.

Of course at those levels they would import fewer ... so who knows, maybe even higher prices

Edited May 26, 2015 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

Bliss? Yuck! I can't stand those things. Anyway what is all the speculative babble for? There is a drought in California this year. Not the dynamics to create a "regular thing". Read the news for pete's sake! Yuck .

Yuck?

Curious if you have actually tried properly ripened Haas or Haas similar avocados.

Can't imagine saying Yuck to that.

Now poorly handled cados, even Haas, and most of the non-Haas Thai cados ... yes, often VERY yuck.

[Jingthing]

I haven't had one since I left the US 8 years ago. Every one I've seen is hard as a rock. Not worth wasting money on. That's like buying topical fruit in the US: except for bananas, they're usually not ripe and not worth buying either.

I find your comment really odd because the standard thing is to buy them HARD and ripen at home. That is unless you are going to use them the same day, then you would buy one ripe at the store. For guac, I suppose even a little overripe is OK. The trouble is that in Thailand the grocers store this fruit improperly, you take it home, and it ripens mushy/rotten pretty much half of the time (if you're lucky). Sometimes that fruit is still edible, sometimes for the trash (you can tell by the SMELL). I reckon it's because they REFRIGERATE the hard fruit. It's really a crying shame so many cados are ruined by the grocers here and so much money is wasted by consumers gambling on getting an edible one.

My best luck in getting ones that ripen well is when I can tell they just a got fresh shipment of product, even if it's in their cold case, which it often is. Of course, we don't know what they did to it before it hit the shelves. So always a gamble.

I suppose the best thing not to waste money is to find a ripe one at the store and use it. But usually you don't find those. You find hard ones and also ones which have already ripened to mush at the store. Of course that's a sad sign if you buy a hard one from that tray, you're throwing your money away.

BTW, in the U.S. I often bought them hard and did NOT have this problem of wastage because the grocers there knew how to handle the product. Also of course a shorter trip to get to the market.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Jingthing

[8OA8]

Been growing my own and expanding the number of trees in my orchard out of Chiang Mai as well. Advertised seedlings in a Facebook page and sold some but the response wasn't astoudning. Mix of Thai and westerners buying. Pics are of seedlings and fruit on the "mother" tree...

Is this something that I could grow on my condo balcony in Bangkok?

If yes what's the yield.

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

My avocado trees would get about 15 feet tall before they would produce. How tall is your balcony? I have grown them from seed here, but they won't fit on my balcony. I give them as gifts to those that have land.

Thanks for your feedback. I guess the answer would be to give the owner of the unit below me a tree as a present and then I can pick them from my balcony.

[Sirbergan]

We might see avocados at 200, but 500 is not gonna happen for a very long time. I'd love cheap avocados myself, but I guess expensive avocados is just one of those things we have to accept as a downside of living here.

[MichaelJohn]

They are becoming more popular/common in Thailand with farmers.

Like Fallangpakwan said, they are now grown around Kao Yai and Korat (in increasing numbers) and we know people who are moving into them commercially.

I have a couple of trees myself, grown from the "stone" but they have yet to give fruit.

[F4UCorsair]

Not right on topic, but......try this

For breakfast, mash half an avocado, not too finely, add lemon juice, pepper and chili powder.

Spread it on three slices of toast on top of a thin scraping of Promite, or Vegemite.

It's addictive.

Edited May 27, 2015 by F4UCorsair

[SiSePuede419]

Absurd. They're out of season here. Next December/January they'll be 60B/kilo at the central market in Chiang Rai. That's less than $1 a pound.

There's two reasons why they grow Hass avocados in Cali.

1. They taste better than the big green ones.

2. They keep longer, so you can enjoy the avocado season longer.

Edited May 27, 2015 by SiSePuede419

[DonaldBattles]

Any discussion about California avocados is meaningless. This is not California and you will never eat another unless you go back to California. It is like a long drawn out discussion about why California beef is better than Thai. I feel that we already know more than we need to know about California avocados so think about hanging it up.

Thai avocados are reasonable in season and that is all we have unless you want to spend a small fortune for the baby size Australlia ones which show me next to nothing for the price.

One Aussie told me that that 2/3 vegemite on top of a Thai avocado was wonderful as you could not taste the avocado. I recommend eat more vegemite. But don't tell us again how great it is. Everyone should go out and plant themselves a avocado tree or 10. They need to cross pollinate.

[Jingthing]

I think people are not getting my point.

I am not talking about a short seasonal glut of Thai grown cados.

I am most certainly not talking about non-Haas or non-Haas similar cados, Thai or not.

I am talking about people who want to eat cados ALL YEAR LONG.

Yes for the most part there are some for sale here (at least in big cities) all year long and for the vast majority of the year the Haas or Haas similar ones are imported.

Mostly from Australia and New Zealand and yes, sometimes from California and Mexico.

I've been buying imports this way for many years throughout the year.

Generally ranging from 50 to 100 for imports, 50 rare, 60 to 80 more standard. Sometimes a lot more for LARGE ones.
Yes during the Thai seasons there is price relief, generally for very small ones, but it is not for long.

I am talking about the future of prices for the IMPORTED Haas cados, year long, OK?

I hope that is clear now.

Those who are happy only buying in Thai season, good for you, I am not.

Cados are one of the most healthy and delicious foods you can eat. I have regular recipes I want them for. No I will not pay 500 baht for one. I don't even like paying 100 baht but I think I will. 200 baht, we'll see.

Also as I have said before, yes there are regional differences here depending on where you live in Thailand.

It might be different if you're living in a Northern cado ranch, at least in season.

Probably in many areas you don't see imported cados in the stores almost all year as I have.

Edited May 28, 2015 by Jingthing

[natway09]

There are great fruit & vegetables including avacados on the roadside stalls from Tak to Mae Sot pretty well all year round.

And ripe , ready to eat & full of flavour

The problem with imported fruit including avacados, peaches, strawberries nectarines, apricots even cherries is that the orchard

picks them so unripened by the time they travel in a refridgerated container,blah ,blah blah when we finally get to eat them no flavour

like eating cardboard.

Foodland got some cherries & strawberries that had been airflown from NZ last year, expensive but better than the bullets from the US

& actually bursting with flavour

[cumgranosalum]

Mind you if UK leaves the EU, they'll be eating 500 baht avacados shortly afterwards

[cumgranosalum]

There are great fruit & vegetables including avacados on the roadside stalls from Tak to Mae Sot pretty well all year round.

And ripe , ready to eat & full of flavour

The problem with imported fruit including avacados, peaches, strawberries nectarines, apricots even cherries is that the orchard

picks them so unripened by the time they travel in a refridgerated container,blah ,blah blah when we finally get to eat them no flavour

like eating cardboard.

Foodland got some cherries & strawberries that had been airflown from NZ last year, expensive but better than the bullets from the US

& actually bursting with flavour

that's not how they are shipped.

[Jingthing]

Northern roadways stalls are great if you happen to be living in that region during the local season.

Most people in Thailand don't.

I have never seen a cado here outside a grocery store.

There is also the question of Haas or not.

The non-Haas Thai cados are not what most cado lovers are looking for.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Jingthing

[AyG]

There is also the question of Haas or not.

The non-Haas Thai cados are not what most cado lovers are looking for.

I think the obsession with Hass avocados is very much an American thing. In the UK they're regarded as cheap and inferior to other strains.

[Jingthing]

There is also the question of Haas or not.

The non-Haas Thai cados are not what most cado lovers are looking for.

I think the obsession with Hass avocados is very much an American thing. In the UK they're regarded as cheap and inferior to other strains.

Not exactly.

Name the strains you like.

There are indeed many many strains.

Generally there are the richer, fatty taste ones, with less water like Haas.

And then there the leaner, much more watery ones, with much less flavor, in the U.S. roughly described as Florida type.

If you're saying Haas and Haas SIMILAR ones are much more highly sought after in the U.S. (and MEXICO) then you're right.

There are culinary uses of good quality Florida type ones as well.

Thailand grows both. It seems mostly not Haas type though.

Yes Haas and Haas similar ones are a richer food, more fat in them, but they are now considered to be a type of health promoting fat.

If you're saying that in the U.K. Florida similar ones (watery, less flavor) are higher priced and considered superior in flavor to Haas similar ones (without any doubt richer flavor), I am having a really hard time believing you. But OK, whatever you say.

Growing up in the U.S. before the Mexican food invasion a popular way of using cados was in a "ladies who lunch" recipe of stuffed avocados with shrimp stuff. These were Florida watery type cados for such recipes. That could be part of this ... the type of recipes that are popular for cado use in the UK so maybe that explains it. I have also seen them used in Spain (Florida type) in similar ways. So yes the U.S. got more Mexican and moved away from the popularity of those kinds of culinary uses.

To add, the cados imported into Thailand from Australia, New Zealand, Chile, the USA, and Mexico are always Haas or Haas similar (richer and fattier) and I have NEVER seen even one Florida type (watery) cado IMPORTED into Thailand. So to suggest that it is only Americans (and Mexicans) who value Haas or Haas similar more is obviously false.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

Here is a typical retro culinary use of Florida type (watery) cados:

Note the stuffing has fat ... the cado not much.

To add, I like good quality Florida types myself but for my culinary uses, the fattier ones work better, and also in my experience the Thai grown Florida ones are often poor quality (as are their Haas similar ones). But again, likely issues with the handling getting them to the grocery shelves.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Jingthing

[Turkleton]

Gosh, three pages of moaning about Avocados!

Some people should really get a life aside from eating, bitching and Baht bus (driver) hating....

[Jingthing]

Gosh, three pages of moaning about Avocados!

Some people should really get a life aside from eating, bitching and Baht bus (driver) hating....

You bothered to post on this thread just to insult people and nothing about the topic?

How worthless. Less than worthless. Welcome to my ignore list. It usually takes much more ... but I get the drift. Life is too short for online pests and bad avocados!

Edited May 30, 2015 by Jingthing

[whaleboneman]

Gosh, three pages of moaning about Avocados!

Some people should really get a life aside from eating, bitching and Baht bus (driver) hating....

I read the three pages because I love avocados. Why did you read them?