Due to the recent boom in global consumption, Mexico’s avocado sector has drawn the attention of domestic criminal networks. In fact, avocado production and exports – both to the United States and the European Union − display worrying signs of criminal organizations being involved in the market, human rights violations and environmental and health impacts. Yet, contrary to expectations, the industry has grown despite, or parallel to, rising levels of violence and criminal networks.
Focusing on the state of Michoacán, the world’s n°1 producer of avocado, a recent study shows how international demand and organized crime groups have shaped a multi-billion-dollar industry in which politico-criminal relations continue to play a crucial role.
Over the past decades, the Mexican avocado market’s exponential growth has been accompanied by rising levels of violence. Between 1994, the first year that the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed, and 2021, avocado production increased by 213% and value increased by 7071% in a market that had included the European Union since 2000, when the first EU−Mexico Economic Partnership, Political Coordination and Cooperation Agreement (Global Agreement) came into force.
While avocado production’s negative social and ecological impacts are irrefutable, from 2017 to 2021, Mexico’s exports of this fruit to the European market grew almost fourfold. In a world concerned about climate change and environmental crime, and within the framework of recent EU regulations on deforestation and the Global Agreement’s negotiations, Michoacán’s avocado industry should become a test case for innovations and the food industry’s ability to reform itself.
Source: globalinitiative.net