mission produce inc shares plunged in afterhours trading thursday following an earnings report that showed the effects of rapidly declining avocado prices mission produce avo reported a fiscal fourthquarter loss of 42 million or 59 cents a share on net revenue of 238 million basically flat with a year ago after adjusting for a goodwill impairment stock compensation and other effects the company reported earnings of 13 cents a share analysts on average were expecting adjusted earnings of 34 cents a share on sales of 250 million mission produce stock fell 14 in afterhours trading after closing with a 34 decline at 1461 executives noted that avocado prices have been dropping after rising quickly at times last year including when imports from mexico were blocked for a time executives stated that prices declined 10 from the same period last year a drastic change from the rest of the year mission produce’s fullyear sales showed a 28 increase in average selling prices from the year before despite including that fourthquarter decline “our fiscal fourthquarter financial performance was impacted by a confluence of variables especially with regard to the rapid decline in pricing which undermined our ability to drive the perunit margins that we have generated historically” founder and chief executive steve barnard said in a statement thursday “persistent cost inflation combined with a suboptimal size curve from our owned production and a delay to our seasonal transition to the mexican production resulted in an unfavorable mix lower relative pricing and temporary margin compression” in a conference call later thursday barnard was more specific about a sudden drop in pricing this fall “trends reversed sharply during the fiscal fourth quarter with the onset of the new mexican season and drove prices down approximately 35 as compared to the fiscal third quarter” he said executives expect that decline to last into the fiscal first quarter projecting yearoveryear price decreases of 20 to 25 but see stability in the forecast for 2023 “with respect to fiscal 2023 we see a more normal marketplace emerging highlighted by better and more consistent supply conditions which provides a constructive foundation for the industry to drive consumption and expand growth in new geographies” barnard said mission produce shares have outperformed major indexes so far in 2022 declining 69 through thursday’s close while the sp 500 index spx has fallen 198 and the dow jones industrial average djia has dropped 82 this year