India’s Avocado Boom

 

From ‘Dog Fruit’ to Darling: How India Fell in Love With Avocados

There was a time when an avocado falling from a tree in parts of India was hardly worth anyone’s attention. In some communities, ripe fruit was left on the ground for dogs to eat, earning the avocado the rather unfortunate nickname “dog fruit.” Today, the same fruit is becoming increasingly valuable, with farmers planting new orchards, restaurants demanding better supplies and consumers developing a taste for the creamy green fruit.

India’s avocado transformation is a striking example of how quickly food habits can change. According to a BBC report, demand for avocados has grown dramatically over the past 15 years, creating an opportunity for farmers who once regarded the crop as little more than an afterthought.

From shade tree to profitable crop

Sunil Bopaiah, group manager at Cottanad Plantations in Kerala’s Wayanad hills, has witnessed the transformation firsthand. The plantation grows cocoa, rubber, coffee, spices and fruit, but avocados were not originally planted as a commercial crop.

Instead, the trees were introduced to provide shade for coffee plantations.

That changed as demand began to emerge. Bopaiah recalls that around 2011, Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty spoke publicly about using avocado for skincare. The publicity helped push the fruit into the spotlight, and prices rose sharply.

Cottanad Plantations has since committed about 40 acres to avocado cultivation. The farm harvested between 10 and 15 tonnes last year and hopes to increase production to between 40 and 50 tonnes within three to four years.

But growing avocados commercially is not as simple as planting a seed and waiting for fruit.

Farmers are learning a new way to grow avocados

The plantation has changed its cultivation methods after learning from South African experts. Raised beds, wider spacing and improved planting techniques are now being used because avocado roots can be particularly vulnerable to disease.

That knowledge is becoming increasingly important as Indian farmers move from scattered backyard trees to commercial orchards.

The challenge is partly about consistency. India has many naturally occurring avocado trees, but their genetic differences can produce fruit that varies considerably in size, texture and quality. Researchers at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research in Bengaluru are working on more uniform varieties that could help farmers produce fruit that meets commercial standards.

There are also concerns about nurseries selling unidentified or diseased planting material. For farmers making a major investment in an orchard, choosing the wrong seedlings can result in serious losses years later.

A huge gap between demand and supply

Perhaps the biggest attraction for Indian farmers is the size of the market opportunity.

Industry promoter Manilal Palliyath says India currently imports around 15,000 tonnes of avocados each year, while domestic production is estimated at only 8,000 to 9,000 tonnes. That gap leaves considerable room for local growers to expand.

For farmers facing difficulties with traditional crops such as coffee and pepper, avocado offers another possibility. Changing climatic conditions have affected some traditional agricultural activities, making diversification increasingly important.

The opportunity has already attracted entrepreneurs. Harshit Godha, who founded Indo-Israel Avocado Nursery in Bhopal, has supplied about 18,000 avocado plants to farmers across India over the past five years, with varieties including Hass and Pinkerton. His work reflects the growing interest in bringing international cultivation techniques and planting material into India's developing avocado industry.

Restaurants want local fruit — but quality matters

India’s changing appetite for avocado is also visible in its restaurants.

Mumbai-based chef Hussain Shahzad says locally grown avocados have improved, but their quality and availability can still vary depending on the season and region. For professional kitchens, consistency is critical. Imported avocados currently provide the predictable flavour, texture, size and ripening characteristics that restaurants need.

Yet there is a clear desire to change that.

Restaurants would prefer to support local farmers if domestic producers can consistently supply the quality required by chefs and customers. That creates another incentive for Indian growers to improve cultivation, harvesting, storage and distribution.

Farmers see a future in the green fruit

For farmers already experimenting with commercial avocado production, the results are encouraging.

Shiju Sebastian, a farmer in Wayanad, dedicated two acres to avocados about eight years ago. He is now harvesting roughly 3,500kg of fruit, with the crop sold in Bengaluru. Encouraged by the market, he plans to add another three acres to his farm.

His experience captures the optimism surrounding India's avocado boom: the crop is no longer simply something growing in the background of a coffee plantation. It is becoming a serious agricultural business.

But the road ahead will require more than enthusiasm. Farmers need reliable planting material, technical knowledge, better post-harvest handling and dependable buyers. Without those systems, rapidly expanding production could create new problems, particularly if farmers produce fruit that fails to meet the standards demanded by supermarkets and restaurants.

India’s avocado story is only beginning

The journey from “dog fruit” to sought-after food is more than a curious agricultural story. It shows how consumer culture, celebrity influence, climate pressures, technology and farming economics can combine to transform the fortunes of a crop.

India still relies heavily on imported avocados, but the growing domestic industry is beginning to challenge that dependence. If farmers can close the quality and supply gaps, the country could develop a much stronger home-grown avocado industry.

For now, the humble avocado is enjoying a remarkable reversal of fortune. What was once left for dogs is increasingly being sought after by consumers, chefs and farmers — and India's appetite for the fruit shows few signs of disappearing.

The real question is no longer whether Indians will eat avocados. It is whether Indian farmers can grow enough of them, consistently enough, to satisfy a market that is only getting hungrier.