Start Saving. Your Smashed Avocado on Toast Is About to Get Even More Expensive

Your avocado on toast or guacamole is about to get a lot pricier, due to falling supply and rocketing demand for the trendy fruit.

Prices for avocados have hit an all-time high as major producers have seen smaller harvests this year, meanwhile the fruit’s popularity continues to grow worldwide, Bloomberg reports.

Heatwaves and drought mean that California’s avocado production is expected to fall by 44%, while disastrous flooding in Peru’s avocado-growing south has also led to a downgrade in this year’s crop forecast, according to the BBC. Mexico, where 82% of America’s avocados come from, has also experienced a growers’ strike that could make matters worse.

According to Bloomberg data, Hass avocados from Mexico’s major wholesale producer are now selling for more than double last year’s price. The Hass and Fuerte varieties comprise 95% of avocados consumed in the U.S.

Dwindling supply isn’t the also cause of the price hike, however. While the U.S. is the largest consumer and importer of avocados — shipping 1.76 billion pounds of avocados from Mexico in 2015 from 24 million pounds in 2000 — demand for the fruit in other places such as China is also surging.

Obsession with the avocado was underscored by the opening of the world’s first all-avocado restaurant in Brooklyn last month.

[Bloomberg, BBC]