Mission Produce, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVO) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call December 21, 2023 5:30 PM ET
Company Participants
Jeff Sonnek - Investor Relations at ICR
Stephen J. Barnard - Chief Executive Officer
Bryan Giles - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Ben Bienvenu - Stephens
Gerry Sweeney - ROTH Capital Partners
Tom Palmer - JPMorgan
Operator
Good afternoon, and welcome to the Mission Produce Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2023 Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please also note that today's event is being recorded.
At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Jeff Sonnek, Investor Relations at ICR. Sir, please go ahead.
Jeff Sonnek
Thank you, and good afternoon. Today's presentation will be hosted by Steve Barnard, Chief Executive Officer; and Bryan Giles, Chief Financial Officer.
The comments during today's call and the accompanying presentation contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in the Company's filings with the SEC.
We'll also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures today. Please refer to the tables included in the earnings release, which can be found on our Investor Relations website, investors.missionproduce.com, for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures.
With that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Steve Barnard, CEO. Steve, please go ahead.
Stephen J. Barnard
Thank you for joining us today. Fiscal year 2023 was a dynamic year for Mission. Although we drove a 12% increase in total avocado volume sold, 654 million pounds for the year, net sales decreased 9% to $954 million due to a 24% decrease in average per unit avocado sale prices. However, I'd remind you that in the prior year, we experienced a volume decline of 11% which supported an extremely robust pricing environment with prices higher by 28%.
I believe this context is an important reminder that in a normal environment, our business is largely driven by our volume, and our primary goal is to drive long-term volume growth through supporting our markets with consistent supply and then translating that improved excess to per capita consumption growth. This is a playbook that has served us well and has Mission instrumental in driving growth throughout the North American market, and we intend to do the same thing globally in markets such as Europe and Asia over the long term.