Green Gold, or How Avocado Has Become More Profitable than Marijuana

The increased popularity of avocados has led to the fact that the proceeds from the sale of this vegetable more than from marijuana.

According to "Company's secret", the average American eats up in a year 2 times more avocados than 10 years ago: 2,7 kg in 2015 year against 1,3 kg in 2006-m. Imports of these fruits from 2000 increased by 73 times, exceeding 700 million tons per year. The British spent $ 2015 million on buying avocados in 187, while imports in 2015 of China grew by 250%. Even 3 a year ago, China did not import this vegetable at all, but now every week a container 33 arrives at the ports.

Previously, avocados were called "green gold" because of its beneficial properties, now - because not everyone can afford it. In the US, the 10-kilogram grade box Hate worth almost $ 30 - against $ 14 a year earlier.

Fashion for healthy eating

Such popularity of avocados is due to the fashion for superfood, that is, for foods high in protein, healthy acids and vitamins. Writes Spindrift, avocado is very healthy: an excellent source of monounsaturated fatty acids (sometimes called “healthy fats”), which, in turn, can reduce cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease. The vegetable actually contains a huge amount of fiber (promotes healthy digestion and reduces blood sugar spikes, which makes you feel hungry), protein, potassium (to maintain low blood pressure) and folate (it is involved in DNA synthesis and regeneration). In addition, avocado fruits boast the presence of vitamin E (which fights free radicals and repairs skin damage), vitamin K (for blood clotting) and vitamin C (essential for maintaining healthy cells).

Half a large avocado contains 180 calories and is considered one of the recommended daily foods to eat.

Avocado lovers are celebrities like Kim Kardashian or Gwyneth Paltrow. After the British television star Nigel Lawson showed on the air how to make the perfect toast, sales only in Waitrose supermarkets grew by 30%. And Miley Cyrus even has an avocado tattoo even on the left trice.

The popularity of the fruit, whose name comes from the Aztec ahuacatl (which in the original means “testicles” - thanks to nature, in which avocados grow in two pieces side by side and hang heavily from the branch), it really turns into an absurdity. Every day only Instagram There are up to 3 million posts dedicated to avocados - whole, cut in half, photogenically placed on gluten-free bread. And this number does not yet include the incredible number of memes for the popular green fruit.

Last year, in the London restaurant chain Pret A Manger, guests fed a total of five million avocados: more than two times more than in 2013 a year.

Mafia and Avocado

Such popularity has led to the fact that the trade in avocados becomes more profitable than the trade in marijuana. What provokes a lot of illegal actions and leads to the fact that the plantations of avocados are led by the mafia.

In the US, avocados are imported from 1980, and mostly from Mexico, writes Hidden history. Michoacan was the only Mexican state approved by the United States Department of Agriculture to export avocados to America. By 2010, almost three-quarters of all plantations in Mexico were concentrated in Michoacan and exported about 80% to the USA for more than $ 1 billion a year. One hectare of plantation generated about $ 100 th.

In 2010, a great mafia-assault took place in Michoacan as a result of which the Templarios Caballeros cartel (“Knights Templar”) defeated, leading not only the main drug traffic flows, but also control over the avocado plantations. Through communications dominated by the mafia, it obtained data on every farmer who grew avocados in Michoacan and came to collect "tax" from 1 to 10 cents per pound of avocado or $ 100 for each hectare of the plantation. Those who did not agree to pay were kidnapped, burned the land, killed family members.

In recent years, when the cartel became more powerful, he began to extort "taxes" from local packaging and shipping companies, including those owned by American corporations. Sometimes even local municipalities donate money from the budget to representatives of the cartel. According to various estimates, only the avocado industry provides Templarios at least $ 150 million per year.

Poor harvest

Despite the fact that Mexico is the largest supplier of avocados, Mexicans eat 80% of the harvest themselves. The remaining 20% ​​is half of world exports. To maintain leadership, pine forests are illegally cut down in Mexico for plantations.

92% Mexican avocados produce the southwestern state of Michoacan. Usually there are ideal conditions for growing these fruits, but not this spring, when droughts in the region alternated with heavy rains. As a result, current prices, according to Bloomberg, the highest in recent 19 years.

There are plantations of avocados in California. But local farmers this year were not lucky: the drought and the invasion of parasitic beetles halved yields. Other major avocado producers - Dominican Republic, Peru, Indonesia and Colombia - cannot boast good harves this year either. Because of this, the avocado crisis is hitting new markets.

In New Zealand, the shortage led to a surge in shoplifting. This happened when the value of the fetus exceeded $ 4 apiece.

In addition to the harvest crisis, the high cost of the vegetable is also explained by high water consumption. In Chile, avocado plantations are drying up the entire country's water supply. To grow avocados for the UK alone, 25 million cubic meters are consumed annually. m of water is 10 thousand Olympic swimming pools, calculated in Global Food Security.

Only rich businessmen can afford to rent expensive drills for drilling superdeep wells, so most have to be content with groundwater, the supply of which is almost exhausted. In addition, unlike traditional crops, avocado seedlings before the first harvest need three years of farmer's attention. Add to this the high susceptibility of the plant to droughts and diseases and a short “productivity” - the crop will turn out to be harvested no more than 10 years, then the plant dies.

Since the water reserves on the planet are decreasing every year, the cultivation of avocado is becoming a very costly process, so it is likely that the price of it will only grow in the future.

The problem of high demand led to the fact that the World Bank in Peru identified areas where there is still avocado Hate can grow the most delicious on the planet. And he developed a program to prepare farms and farmers for the cultivation of avocados. In California, for example, they began to produce a variety of avocados that would require less water to become an ideal fruit.

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