Frozen Avocado Suppliers in Costa Rica
The avocado has always been a really loved fruit (some people call it a vegetable) and sought after for the people around the world as it has great nutritional value and a favor that complements a lot of dishes perfectly. In recent years the need and consumption has increased dramatically, meaning that finding frozen avocado suppliers in Costa Rica has become more urgent than ever.
In this article you are going to find some characteristics of this sought after fruit, curiosities and varieties that can be found in Costa Rica.
Avocado and its characteristics
The avocado belongs to the lauraceae family, made up of woody plants that grow in hot climates and which include aromatic plants such as laurel, camphor and cinnamon.
Its origin is located in Central America, in the areas of Mexico, Guatemala and the Antilles. The name derives from the Aztec ahuacatl, which means “testicle”, probably due to its shape, and hence its fame as an aphrodisiac.
The Spanish called it “pear of the Indies”. It is indeed pear-shaped, with a hard and dark skin, it houses a single large, round seed inside. The pulp is creamy, with a green or pale yellow color, with a flavor reminiscent of hazelnut.
As there are so many varieties, each with different harvesting times, avocados can be found on the market in both winter and summer. Currently you can find avocados of national production and with the endorsement of organic farming.
5 benefits of avocados
1. Authentic and healthy vegetable butter
Due to the creaminess of the pulp that gives it its richness in fat, avocado spreads easily, which makes it a healthy vegetable butter, an excellent alternative to industrial margarines.
Its nutritional composition makes it a practically essential food in high-fat plant diets, such as the ketogenic diet.
2. Cardiovascular Health
Avocado not only lacks cholesterol, but it tends to reduce it if the person consuming it has high levels of it. That is why its consumption is suitable to prevent the appearance of problems such as atherosclerosis (lack of flexibility of the arterial walls) or coronary diseases (angina pectoris or myocardial infarction).
Unsaturated fats in avocado normalize cholesterol, reducing LDL or “bad fats” and increasing HDL or “good fats”
3. Recommended for athletes
It is a key food for those who practice sports, be they children, young people or adults. It provides nutrients that are very suitable for cases of muscle over-activity (especially minerals such as potassium and magnesium), as well as energy wasting (rich in lipids and carnitine, which helps to take advantage of them).
Due to these great properties, avocado has become a trend in times where people have evolved in their eating habits and are looking for healthy foods. Diets such as paleo or keto, have avocado as an essential food for being a “healthy fat” and which have been adapted by many athletes or active people.
4. Relaxes the nervous system
Due to its richness in fatty acids, magnesium and B vitamins, avocado is an excellent food regulator of the nervous system, which is why it is especially indicated in situations of both physical and mental stress.
5. Prevents wrinkles
It is also a friend of the skin. With the pulp, masks are prepared that help prevent wrinkles and treat dermatitis or even burns.
For oily skin, a mask is prepared with two or three tablespoons of pulp and the juice of half a lemon. It is gently massaged onto the face (in an upward direction), allowed to dry, and cleansed with warm water or rose water.
From avocados its oil is extracted, which is dark green in color, which nourishes and softens the skin. In fact, this is the reason why this fruit is becoming common in moisturizers for the skin and even hair.
Avocado in Costa Rica
Costa Rica has been a country for several years characteristic of importing avocado to supply the national demand that has been growing season by season.
In the country you can find 3 types of varieties mainly that are Hass, Simon and Criollo.
Starting with the Criollo avocado, it is an avocado with a slightly sweet flavor that is ideal to use in smoothies and salads for the different touch of flavor. It is also a little more yellow than the most common varieties but the easiest to get or harvest since it can be found even in the same houses of the Ticos.
In times of greater scarcity, this also occurs a lot in Nicaragua, which, being a neighboring and close country, can be imported to cover windows and satisfy local demand.
The Simon avocado is the 2nd most sought-after variety in the country due to its large size and quality. The flavor is less strong than Hass and the creaminess is very similar. There are opinions that say that its flavor is a little more watery than Hass, but it more than meets its objective and is very common in use in salads.
In a way, it is convenient to consume since its size exceeds that of Hass, it has a great flavor and its yield between seed and meat can be around 80%. Another advantage it has is that it is complemented by the Hass avocado in Costa Rica since its season begins when the Hass season ends.
Finally, the other and the most famous variety found in Costa Rica is the Hass avocado. There is not much to add about this variety as it is the most famous even worldwide.
It has a great flavor, creaminess, incredible color and texture, all of which have been factors in becoming a fruit that many people like. It is recognized for not being that large, around 100 grams each and its shell has a rough characteristic.
Compared to the Simon variety, the Hass avocado has a much smaller yield that can vary between 50 to 60% depending on the production or area of the country.
To supply all of Costa Rica with avocado of the Hass variety, up to two million trees of this fruit would be needed, which could take the country from 20 to 30 years.
Avocado trees begin to bear the first fruits after four years of planting. In addition, the area planted would be required to be similar to that currently occupied by the national coffee cultivation.
Although the Hass variety is already planted in the Los Santos area, the amount is not enough to supply the national demand.
The Chamber of Exporters and Importers of Perishable Products estimates that local avocado consumption amounts to 15,000 tons per year, of which 12,000 must be imported from other markets, mainly from Mexico.
The demand for frozen avocado in Costa Rica and in the world
Avocado has excellent and countless nutritional properties and health benefits as previously explained. However, like all good things, it also has its drawbacks.
These drawbacks refer mainly to the waste it has. In a perfect world, where all fruits could reach people’s tables at the exact moment of consumption, there would be no food waste that, according to WFP studies, amounts to 1/3 of what is produced annually.
The avocado in particular is a very delicate fruit, that is, if it is accidentally hit it may be the reason that it ripens out of time with its peel. This means that when it is “ready” visually, it may already be damaged in the internal part or its pulp. This is one of the reasons why people do not buy avocado and it is almost a lottery to find one in perfect condition.
Another problem is the rapid maturation it has. Once it enters the natural ripening process, there is no turning back. Avocado ripens very quickly making the ideal window of consumption very short, possibly 2 to 3 days. Prior to this, it is either too green to consume or it is stale and rusty.
This logistics and little control in the fruit, means that many supermarket chains or suppliers have to discard a lot of product without having managed to reach people’s tables. It is a very complicated issue and why many times resources such as water, transportation and people’s effort are wasted along with each fruit that is discarded.
The frozen avocado allows to extend the useful life of the fruit in addition to guaranteeing 100% usability. Without waste, at the ideal time and without the disadvantages of rapid maturities that promote an inefficient use of monetary resources.
The disadvantage that frozen avocado has, like all fruit, is the breakage of fibers that it can suffer in the process that causes the texture, flavor and odors to be lost when defrosting and is not an option for many people. For this reason, the Prime Freezing System was developed as an alternative freezing system to offer fruit as fresh when defrosting, eliminating the disadvantages of traditional freezing and the rapid ripening of fresh fruit.
