A crate filled with avocados is seen at a plantation in Tingambato, Michoacan state, Mexico Jun 18, 2024. URUAPAN, Mexico: On a sweltering July afternoon, two large yellow bulldozers dug into the brown soil at the bottom of a lush avocado orchard near the small town of Madero, located in central Mexico's Michoacan state.
Illegal practices in Mexico's avocado heartland, which is expanding rapidly to feed growing demand in the United States, come at the expense of nearby forests, according to Michoacan government officials. Reuters visited two orchards in July that an analysis of satellite images by US nonprofit Climate Rights International showed were illegally deforested in Madero after 2015.
The Organic Consumers Association is also asking the court to declare that the two avocado importers are violating the District of Columbia's consumer protection law, and to bar them from continuing such conduct.Avocado exports to the United States have soared 48 per cent since 2019, according to US trade data. The US market accounts for about 80 per cent of Mexico's total avocado exports, data by the US Department of Agriculture shows, a trade worth US$3 billion last year.
Climate Rights International, whose findings are cited in the Organic Consumers Association's lawsuits, said it has documented more than 30 threats or acts of intimidation associated with the expanded avocado trade, including four abductions and five fatal shootings. Residents told Reuters some local people fight back by destroying the illegal water pumps installed by producers that drain communal reservoirs.
The new data shows West Pak, Fresh Del Monte and other importers kept shipping from illegally deforested orchards even after being informed of the deforestation in their supply chain, according to Climate Rights International's analysis of trade records. Daniel Wilkinson, Climate Rights International's senior adviser, said:"If these companies are serious about their public commitment to sustainability, they could easily clean up their supply chains and greatly reduce the main incentive driving the deforestation and attacks on local communities.