Chile, another large grower, is expected to ship about 180 million pounds to the U.S. next year, mostly after August. The Dominican Republic is a small but growing player in the U.S. avocado market.
Americans buy almost 1 billion pounds of avocados annually, and the demand is growing. "Twenty years ago, basically most avocados were eaten in California, Arizona and Texas. Now they eat them in Wisconsin," Faber said.
Crane said the local demand "is so strong that you could probably sell the entire California crop in just the five-county Southern California metropolitan area."
California growers are expected to produce about 210 million pounds of avocados in 2009. That's about a third less than this year's crop and only about half of what farmers had hoped for, Brydon said.
"The problem is that it was hot and dry at just the wrong time for avocados," Brydon said.
The state's avocado regions, which stretch from San Diego County to San Luis Obispo County, suffered five to seven consecutive days of 100-degree weather in June, which damaged the fruit that was just beginning to mature on the trees, he said.
This will be the third year in a row that Jim Finch, an avocado farmer near Ventura, has a small crop. "We lost our fruit in the '07 crop and our buds for the '08 crop to the freeze in January 2007, and now we have a very light 2009 crop," he said.
The smaller crop might push prices higher for farmers, but Finch is worried about what retailers might charge during the coming year.
"If people have to pay $2 for an avocado in this type of economy, they might decide not to buy it," Finch said.
California is by far the largest producer of avocados in the U.S., supplying 85% to 90% of what is grown domestically. Florida also grows avocados. California is home to 6,000 growers, who produced 330 million pounds last year with a value of $330 million.
The state is responsible for development of the premium Hass -- rhymes with "pass" -- variety of avocado.
Although archaeologists have found evidence that avocados were cultivated in Mexico as early as 500 BC, the coveted Hass is traced to a single tree growing in the La Habra backyard of Rudolph Hass in the 1920s. That tree is the genetic origin of every Hass avocado worldwide.
The tree succumbed to root rot in 2002. The Avocado Commission reports that its wood is in storage in a Ventura nursery awaiting a decision on a memorial to what has become known as the Hass Mother Tree.
