The Complete Handbook of Avocados

Chapter 1: Understanding Avocados

An avocado is a single-seeded berry that grows on a subtropical tree in the laurel family. Botanically, it is the fruit of Persea americana, and unlike almost every other fruit in the produce department, it does not ripen on the tree. This single fact—that avocados are climacteric and must be harvested mature but unripe—dictates every aspect of how the fruit is grown, shipped, stored, and sold. If you are buying, selling, or handling avocados professionally, your job is not simply to move a fruit from point A to point B. Your job is to manage a biological process that continues long after the fruit has left the tree.

The commercial avocado exists in a state of suspended animation. It is picked at a stage called "maturity," when it has enough dry matter and oil to ripen properly, but it is physiologically dormant. This dormancy allows avocados to be shipped across oceans and stored for weeks in refrigerated containers. The skill in this industry lies in understanding what pushes the fruit out of dormancy and what keeps it in it. Temperature and ethylene gas are the two primary controls. The vast majority of problems you will encounter in the avocado trade—both as a buyer and as a seller—come from a failure to control one of these two factors.

How the fruit develops

To understand what you are handling, it is useful to know how the fruit develops on the tree. Avocado trees flower in one of