Why Florida’s Avocados Are So Much Bigger Than the Ones Up North
Set a Florida avocado next to the kind sold in many northern stores, and the size difference is hard to miss.
The gap comes down to more than where they’re grown.
Here’s why Floridians end up with the bigger fruit.
Avocado Races and Fruit Size
Avocados fall into three races, and the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) lists a fruit size for each.
West Indian fruit runs 1 to 5 pounds, with a leathery-smooth skin, while Guatemalan fruit runs half a pound to 5 pounds.
In Florida, most early season varieties are West Indian types.
Midseason and late varieties are mostly Guatemalan-West Indian hybrids or Guatemalan types.
The Choquette from the top of this article is in the same guide’s variety table, listed at 18 to 40 ounces.
That’s the same listing as the West Indian Pollock.
So if you’re sizing up an avocado by its race, expect a range of weights, not a single number.
The Hass Comparison
Florida avocados are typically the larger fruiting variety, according to a 2021 UF/IFAS Indian River County Extension post.
Hass or Hass-like varieties made up 99% of U.S. avocado imports in 2023, according to a 2024 UF/IFAS market overview.
Mexico supplied 74% of U.S. avocado shipments in 2022, followed by Peru at 10% and California at 9%.
Florida’s share was 1%.
Imports’ share of the U.S. avocado supply reached 90 percent during the last decade.
The same Riverside collection lists a Hass at 6 to 14 ounces, so even the top of that range is under a pound.
If you pick one up, you’re holding a variety that a University of California botany chapter describes as mostly Guatemalan in ancestry.
Against the Guatemalan race’s half-pound to 5-pound range in the UF/IFAS table, Hass overlaps only the lower end.
Hass is tied to areas with Mediterranean climates, and green-skin avocados to tropical and subtropical areas.
West Indian avocados come from the tropical lowlands, and the trees have a low tolerance for cold.
Avocado trees do best in areas of Florida that don’t freeze.
Weights by Variety
Florida avocados don’t all come in one size.
UF/IFAS’s table of varieties recommended for home landscapes lists Brogdon at 8 to 12 ounces and Marcus at 18 to 48 ounces.
Reed, a Guatemalan variety, is listed at 8 to 18 ounces, which overlaps the Hass range.
Across all avocado types, fruit weight runs anywhere from a few ounces to 5 pounds.
Before you assume a Florida avocado is a big one, check which variety you’re holding.
Psst! How much do you know about Florida avocados? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Florida Avocado IQ
Answer these questions on avocado races, trees, and varieties. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
How much does UF/IFAS say fruit from the Mexican avocado race weighs, at most?
Minimum Shipping Weights
Many South Florida avocados have to reach a minimum weight before they can ship.
The federal maturity rule in the Code of Federal Regulations, 7 CFR 915.332, sets that weight variety by variety.
A Choquette's weight floor opens at 28 ounces on September 26, then steps down to 24 ounces on October 10 and 20 ounces on October 24.
The weight requirement ends on November 7.
Each weight is paired with a minimum diameter, and for a Choquette's first date that's 4 1/4 inches.
Monroe starts later, with a first shipping date of November 7 and a 26-ounce minimum.
The rule exempts Hass, Fuerte, Zutano and Edranol avocados.
Avocado fruit doesn't generally ripen until it falls or is picked from the tree, according to UF/IFAS, so the ripening on your counter starts after harvest.
In Florida, fruit counts as mature for harvest once it reaches a set calendar date and a set weight or size.
The Fine Print on the Weight Rule
7 CFR 915.332, the federal weight rule for South Florida avocados, has a tolerance and a color alternative built in.
Up to 10 percent of the fruit in a lot can weigh less than the minimum, but none can be more than 2 ounces under.
So if you weigh a Florida avocado that falls an ounce or two short of the table's number, it can still be part of a lot that meets the rule.
Varieties that turn red or purple when mature can meet the rule with a skin-color change instead of a weight.
Most requirements run every year from April 16 through April 15.
Heaviest and Lightest Minimums
Scan Table I of 7 CFR 915.332, the federal weight table for South Florida avocados, and you'll find more than 60 varieties.
Their first-date minimum weights range from 11 ounces to 32 ounces.
Marcus has the highest first-date minimum, at 32 ounces. That's two pounds for one avocado.
Set that 32-ounce minimum beside 14 ounces, the top of the Hass range, and the Marcus minimum is more than twice the weight.
Marcus's 32 ounces pair with a minimum diameter of 4 3/4 inches, while Christina's 11 ounces pair with 2 7/8 inches.
Loretta and Rue follow at 30 ounces each, and Gorham comes next at 29.
Many varieties in the table start at 18 ounces or less.
The lowest first-date minimums belong to Christina and Gossman, at 11 ounces, which falls inside the 6 to 14 ounces a Hass averages.
The University of California, Riverside's collection also lists the West Indian variety General Bureau at 7 to 18 ounces.
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