Avocado marketer Calavo Growers reported a record third quarter, with earnings up 141 percent to $5.9 million, or 41 cents per share.

The Santa Paula-based firm said Sept. 1 that third-quarter revenues jumped 8 percent to $114.6 million on healthy sales of fresh avocados and avocado products and growth in its other perishable produce sales.

The firm said income from operations was up 139 percent to $9.8 million, a new quarterly high. “Our company continues to successfully execute our unit-driven business model — moving additional volumes through existing infrastructure and continuing to diversify our sourcing and product line-ups,” Calavo Chairman, President and CEO Lee Cole said in an earnings release. “The most recent results are both gratifying and in line with current-year expectations.”

Sales of Calavo’s fresh products totaled $100.7 million, a 6 percent increase over the third quarter of last year. Avocado volumes soared 47 percent year-over-year.

Cole said that expanding avocado supply is being met by rising demand. “We view this as promising indication that market growth is not a one-time anomaly owing to crop size, but rather, a permanent effect of industry promotion, demographic shifts and awareness of the health benefits,” he said. “It bodes well for the avocado industry and Calavo longer term.”

The CalavoFoods segment saw revenues increase 20 percent to $13.9 million, an increase led by sales of its guacamole and other prepared avocado products. The firm said revenues from its prepared foods segment were constrained by higher costs for Mexican avocados.

Calavo said it predicts the fourth quarter will maintain the momentum of the previous three, rounding out what it expects to be its best year ever. It estimated a fresh avocado harvest of around 1.3 billion pounds.

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