Company type | trade association |
---|---|
Industry | agricultural marketing organization |
Founded | 1961 California, United States |
Headquarters | California, United States |
The California Avocado Commission is an agricultural marketing organization and trade association serving avocado producers in the American state of California.
Avocados, native to Central and South America, have long been produced in California. [1] In 1989, California supplied 90 percent of fresh avocados produced in the United States. [2] As of 2008, approximately 6,500 growers produce avocados on 60,000 bearing acres of land (less than 100 square miles). Price and production levels vary from season to season, and from year to year, due to weather and incidents such as fires. In a typical year production averages 350 million pounds at a wholesale price of $1 per pound, although 2008 was an exceptionally low yield year. [3] [4] Most avocados are grown from San Luis Obispo south, with San Diego County the largest producer. [3]
The California Avocado Commission's predecessor organization, the California Avocado Advisory Board, was organized in 1961 out of dissatisfaction by individual growers with the success of the state's largest agricultural cooperative, Calavo Growers, to secure stable prices for avocados. New laws were passed allowing growers to form an association that would obtain a compulsory contribution from businesses directly involved in the avocado industry, and use the money to advertise and promote avocados to consumers throughout America. The Board assumed this marketing responsibility from Calavo, which continued to manage distribution and relations with retailers for the 60% of growers who remained in the co-op. [1]
The newly organized Board began marketing avocados to American housewives and stay-at-home fathers, attempting to downplay the fruit's Mexican origin in favor of an exotic tropical or Mediterranean image, as well as its suitability for mass-produced processed food. The Board also attempted to counter the avocado's reputation as being unhealthy and fattening, [1] a marketing effort that has continued sporadically through the present in an attempt to increase sales.
In the 1970s guacamole, once primarily consumed in America by Mexican-Americans, became popular throughout all of America, initially due to a Sunset Magazine cover story featuring avocado recipes. [1] In the late 1970s to early 1980s consumption surged again due to Latino immigration. During the period avocado consumption tripled in Mexico as well.
The present Commission was organized in 1978 as a successor to the Advisory Board.
In the 1980s there was a boom in avocado planting in California, mostly by small, semi-professional growers. [1] Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the Commission lobbied to prevent imports of fresh avocados from Mexico, which has a much larger avocado industry and lower labor, water, and land costs. One argument it used successfully until 1997, when importation was finally allowed, was that allowing Mexican avocados into the United States would spread crop disease. However, after 1997, lower costs of production in Mexico forced California growers to lower wages to become competitive.
The organization is based in Irvine, California. Among its initiatives are advertising, public relations, defending growers from effects of importation of avocados from Mexico, [5] compiling and disseminating industry news and information, lobbying, research on growing and production, and policing groves from "avocado rustlers" who steal fruit. [2] [6]
Revenues vary from $10–20 million per year (they vary with industry income). [6]
Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus Oxycoccus of the genus Vaccinium. In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species Vaccinium oxycoccos, while in North America, cranberry may refer to Vaccinium macrocarpon. Vaccinium oxycoccos is cultivated in central and northern Europe, while Vaccinium macrocarpon is cultivated throughout the northern United States, Canada and Chile. In some methods of classification, Oxycoccus is regarded as a genus in its own right. Cranberries can be found in acidic bogs throughout the cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The avocado, alligator pear or avocado pear is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated in Mesoamerica more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for its large and unusually oily fruit. The tree likely originated in the highlands bridging south-central Mexico and Guatemala. Its fruit, sometimes also referred to as an alligator pear or avocado pear, is botanically a large berry containing a single large seed. Sequencing of its genome showed that the evolution of avocados was shaped by polyploidy events and that commercial varieties have an hybrid origin. Avocado trees are partly self-pollinating, and are often propagated through grafting to maintain consistent fruit output. Avocados are presently cultivated in the tropical and Mediterranean climates of many countries. Mexico is the world's leading producer of avocados as of 2020, supplying nearly 30% of the global harvest in that year.
A marketing board is an organization created by many producers to try to market their product and increase consumption and thus prices. It can also be defined as an organization set up by a government to regulate the buying and selling of a certain commodity within a specified area. They most commonly exist to help sell farm products such as milk, eggs, beef or tripe and are funded by the farmers or processors of those crops or products. Marketing boards often also receive funding from governments as an agricultural subsidy. The leadership and strategies of the marketing boards are set through votes by the farmers who are members of the board.
The California Raisin Advisory Board was a California state marketing commission based in Fresno, California that was created in the mid-1900s to coordinate the regulation and promotion of the state's raisin crop. The group became most noted from 1986 to 2002 for developing an international advertising campaign using The California Raisins claymation characters. The California Raisin campaign was funded by an initial grant of US$3 million from the United States Department of Agriculture. Although popular with the public, the California Raisin campaign eventually failed because its production cost the raisin growers almost twice their earnings. CALRAB was closed on July 31, 2002, due to disagreements with raisin producers over the fairness of required payments to the organization. In 1998, the California Raisin Marketing Board, funded by raisin growers, was established to replace CALRAB as the promotional organization for the raisin crop.
Florida Lime & Avocado Growers, Inc. v. Paul, 373 U.S. 132 (1963), was a 1963 decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court declined to invalidate a California law that imposed minimum fat content standards on avocados sold in the state, including those imported from other states. The law prohibited the sale of avocados that did not contain at least 8% oil by weight. Florida, a major avocado producer, employed, for wholesale marketing purposes, a federal standard unrelated to oil content. Most Florida avocados that were marketable at home failed to meet the California standard, because they were a different variety from those sold in California, with a lower fat content. Accordingly, Florida avocado growers brought this suit, arguing (unsuccessfully) that the California law (1) was preempted by federal law, (2) violated equal protection, and (3) unduly burdened and interfered with their right to engage in interstate commerce. The case is widely used in law school casebooks on constitutional law and federal jurisdiction as illustrative of preemption issues.
Sphaceloma perseae is a plant-pathogenic fungus in the division Ascomycota. It infects the avocado plant, a tree native to Central America and Mexico. Currently there are three cultivars of avocados in large-scale agricultural production: Guatemalan, Mexican, and West Indian. The pathogen is currently limited to the P. Americana species but is able to infect all three cultivars. The resulting disease is known as avocado scab for the symptoms which are present on the fruit of the avocado tree. It is believed that the disease developed in Florida in the early twentieth century and is related to citrus scab, Elsinoe fawcetti. Since then, S.perseae has spread to many regions worldwide that support cultivation of the avocado tree. This pathogen threatens the global avocado market, including both importers and exporters of the crop. Countries which import avocados, including the United States, have experienced a rising demand over the past decade which is projected to continue for years to come. An understanding of avocado scab characteristics and feasible prevention methods is essential to maintenance of cultures and economies influenced by the avocado fruit.
Agriculture in Colombia refers to all agricultural activities, essential to food, feed, and fiber production, including all techniques for raising and processing livestock within the Republic of Colombia. Plant cultivation and livestock production have continuously abandoned subsistence agricultural practices in favour of technological farming resulting in cash crops which contribute to the economy of Colombia. The Colombian agricultural production has significant gaps in domestic and/or international human and animal sustenance needs.
The University of California Citrus Experiment Station is the founding unit of the University of California, Riverside campus in Riverside, California, United States. The station contributed greatly to the cultivation of the orange and the overall agriculture industry in California. Established February 14, 1907, the station celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2007.
Uganda's favorable soil conditions and climate have contributed to the country's agricultural success. Most areas of Uganda have usually received plenty of rain. In some years, small areas of the southeast and southwest have averaged more than 150 millimeters per month. In the north, there is often a short dry season in December and January. Temperatures vary only a few degrees above or below 20 °C but are moderated by differences in altitude.
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Calavo Growers, Inc. is an international consumer goods and farm products company. The company packages, and distributes avocados and other fruits, as well as their fresh prepared food to restaurants, stores, and individual customers worldwide. While the company is based in Santa Paula, California, avocado production is cultivated throughout the state of California, as well as Central and South America. Calavo Growers was established in 1924 as an agricultural cooperative and was instrumental in launching the California avocado industry. The company operates its business through three divisions including Fresh Products, Calavo Foods and Renaissance Food Group (RFG). The company has been listed on the America's Best Small Company list by Forbes in 2013.
The California Avocado Society is a non-profit organization based in Southern California that provides access to information on cultural, marketing, research and governmental issues for growers in the business of raising avocados. The society was founded in 1915 under the name of California Avocado Association, and changed name to the present one in 1941.
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