Americans consume around nine times as many as they did in 1990, a feat many in the business world attribute to good marketing. You may have noticed the sticker on the avocados at the grocery store that has the brand logo of Avocados From Mexico next to the barcode. This is the number-one-selling avocado brand in the U.S., having finished the 2022-2023 fiscal year with a whopping 2.48 billion pounds of avocados imported, according to the Hass Avocado Board.
Interestingly enough, Avocados From Mexico is a nonprofit marketing organization and it's not working alone. It's a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mexican Hass Avocado Importers Association (MHAIA), but the story doesn't end there.
Avocados From Mexico actually has two parent companies. It's a joint venture between MHAIA and The Association of Avocado Exporting Producers and Packers of Mexico (APEAM).
Funny enough, all three organizations are nonprofits despite being such big businesses. APEAM is a nonprofit civil association that represents more than 34,000 avocado farmers and more than 84 packing houses in Mexico, the majority of which are located in the avocado belt of Michoacán. MHAIA, meanwhile, is a 501(c)6 nonprofit organization that represents importers and distributors in the U.S.
Both APEAM and MHAIA fund and direct the Avocados From Mexico brand, which acts as the face for consumers. MHAIA is involved in the research, development, and marketing arm of the Mexican avocado industry while APEAM is concerned with food safety, traceability, efficiency, transparency, and sustainability on the production side. APEAM is actually the only Mexican association cleared by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to export avocados to the U.S.
These companies all initially started as separate entities, and they still are today, but over the years their business ties grew closer together.
Avocados From Mexico was initially a brand used only by APEAM, which allowed MHAIA to begin using it in 2006. Finally, in 2013, the two groups formed the Avocados From Mexico nonprofit marketing organization that we know today.
Avocados From Mexico has identified its primary consumers to be non-Hispanic males making for at-home football games. It was an ode to these guacamole heroes that led Avocados From Mexico to become the very first produce brand to advertise in the Super Bowl in 2015. The rest, as they say, is history.
