Fresh Del Monte Takes Majority Stake in Avolio

Seed oils seem to be on everyone’s sh*t list: from consumers to influencers, to the people running the government, despite questions about whether they really need to be. The rising concerns have pushed some manufacturers to highlight existing ingredients as novel callouts or rush to reformulate products altogether, hoping to recapture demand. Others are taking it one step further by going straight to the source.

Fresh cut fruit and vegetable distributor Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. has acquired a majority stake in Avolio, Uganda’s leading supplier of bulk crude and edible avocado oil, per an announcement today.

Fresh Del Monte has been building out a new business division – biomass and specialty ingredients – that seeks to transform agricultural byproducts into solutions that enhance soil health and support a circular economy. Avolio fits right into that vision, marking a “strategic step” in its long-term plan to extract more value from its supply chain.

“These efforts not only reinforce our environmental stewardship, but also position us to compete in higher-margin categories that drive profitable growth and long-term shareholder value,” said Mohammad Abu-Ghazelah, chairman and CEO of Fresh Del Monte, in a statement.

Avolio will be able to scale its extraction technology to 140 metric tons of avocados per day following the close of the transaction. Avocados are one of few fruits that can produce oil from its pulp, and Avolio leverages that attribute to create oil from imperfect inputs, the announcement explained.

It’s a major move for the fresh fruit producer: The $1.2 billion avocado oil industry is growing at a CAGR of 8%, per market researcher Fortune Business Insights.

To meet rising demand, Fresh Del Monte said it plans to expand into other locations through increased production capacity and the development of new facilities. By the looks of it, demand won’t be fading soon as interest in avocado oil has increased significantly alongside the anti-seed oil movement’s growing momentum.

• Dubbed the “Hateful Eight” – canola, corn, cottonseed, soybean, sunflower, safflower, grapeseed and rice bran oils – have been denounced by anti-seed oil advocates for their imbalanced ratio of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids believed to cause inflammation in the body.
• The movement has also received a boost from recently appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as part of the greater Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) campaign; however, there is currently no scientific evidence indicating these oils are harmful to human health.

Nevertheless, a number of CPG brands showcased products with anti-seed oil callouts at Expo West earlier this month, including Cedar’s new Reserve Hommus line, Jackson’s kettle chips (cooked exclusively in avocado oil) and Hiker Coffee’s coffee products, crafted in-house with flavoring using MCT oil as the carrier rather than seed oils.

Go Deeper: Inside the Movement Against Seed Oil