Ripe for disruption
It’s big news for brunch enthusiasts: agricultural scientists at the University of California have unveiled their latest development, the product of more than 50 years of selective breeding — a new variety of avocado.
Trademarked as the ‘Luna UCR’, but known officially as the BL516, the Luna is the great-granddaughter of the Hass avocado, the world’s most popular variety, and has been bred to offer consumers high storage quality, excellent ripening, and, of course, great taste and texture.
However, when pitted against the Hass, the Luna is reported to have a few notable advantages for growers. Its smaller tree size allows for denser planting, yielding more fruit per meter, as well as minimal pruning and efficient harvesting. The global effects of climate change have also meant that the Hass’ intolerance to extreme heat (did you know that avocados can get sunburn?) and sensitivity to pests could make the hardier Luna a promising option for farmers.
Since the early 2000s, the US market has seen demand for avocados boom, with availability tripling from over 2 pounds per person in 2001 to more than 8 pounds per capita in 2021 — that’s 20 years of seeing millennials making more avocado toast and buying fewer houses.
To satiate our appetite for the fruit, the US relies heavily on imports, since domestic avocado production and acreage have slowly declined since 2011. Indeed, imported avocados now account for 90% of supply in the US — with the overwhelming majority of those coming from Mexico, a trade that’s worth some $3.1bn a year.
