There is nothing more delicious than a ripe avocado. Its pale skin and wonderful creamy texture adds a whole new dimension to a salad. It’s great with crab, prawns or tuna, and better still if crushed and spread on some fresh bread with a gentle squeeze of some fresh lemon juice. What’s more, health magazines will tell us that it is the perfect fruit to include in our diet. It is packed full of protein, vitamins and healthy fat. It has also been proved to lower blood cholesterol levels.
It’s a super food and it’s a super story. But like most other good stories, the avocado has brought problems.
Mexico in South America is the world’s primary avocado producer. In fact, it produces about 30 per cent–about 2.5 million metric tonnes–of all avocados consumed around the world. The Mexican state of Michoacan is where most of the avocados are grown. The best growing conditions are found there, allowing farmers to grow avocados all year round.
Exports of avocados from Mexico have grown significantly in recent years. In 2003 it was a US$60 million a year business. By 2024, US$3.5 billion worth of avocados were being sold annually. To cope with the demand, farmers have been cutting down Mexico’s pine forests so more avocado farms can be developed. And on those farms, chemicals are regularly used to make sure the fruits grow quickly and disease free.
Doctors and hospital staff have noticed a significant increase in the amount of residents–especially young people living near to these farms – who complain of stomach and breathing problems. There is now a concern that the chemicals may drain into rivers that flow into larger towns and cities, which may have a serious effect on the Mexican population.
That’s one big problem. The other is that the Mexican pine forests are being destroyed which, amongst other things, will have a devastating effect on the wildlife living there. The beautiful Monarch butterfly, for example, has always had a major presence in these forests, but its numbers are reducing rapidly.
As demand for the avocado rises, environmental and health problems–many of them irreversible–will grow. Is it worth it? The Mexican government would like to try to control the development of avocado farms, but with so much money at stake, this may prove impossible.
View some of the problems avocado farmers in Mexico face:
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