An avocado packaging plant in Uruapan, Mexico ... ‘Avocados are so popular on the international level that it’s generating price pressure in the national market.’ Photograph: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images
The growing global appetite for avocados has been blamed for a litany of sorrows, from self-inflicted stab wounds to stopping young people from buying their own homes, according to The Guardian.
But in Mexico, the world’s biggest producer, what used to be a dietary staple is now too expensive for many ordinary consumers. And, now the country where the avocado is believe to have originated is considering the unthinkable: importing avocados from abroad.
“It seems laughable, being able to bring in avocados from other areas at a time when we are so successful in exporting [avocados] … but we’re not ruling it out,” said economy secretary Ildefonso Guajardo.
“It’s practically the price of success. Avocados are so popular on the international level that it’s generating price pressure in the national market.”
Avocados are believed to have first been cultivated in the Mexican state of Puebla, and they have become big business for the country, which accounts for almost half the world’s production.
Government statistics show avocado exports now bring more money into the country than petroleum.
Many towns have grown wealthy on the so-called “green gold” – which has also been blamed for a spate of illegal deforestation in the country.
One town – Tancítaro in Michoacán state – ships out more than a million dollars’ worth of avocado every day, and growers there even organized an armed vigilante group to fight off extortion and threats from criminal cartels.
But the success of the industry has driven up prices to unprecedented levels in recent months: avocados regularly sell for more than 80 pesos (£3.40) per kilo in many markets – the same value as Mexico’s daily minimum wage.
Producers say the price spike has been driven in part by a 20% shrinkage in the crop, but others point to the growing international demand, and warn that high prices are here to stay.
Click here for full article
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/
Comments
more recommended stories
Police arrested two subjects in possession of large quantities of different drugs in Tulum, Quintana RooSecurity forces of the three levels.
Campeche Ministry of Health welcomes Cuban doctors brought by the AMLO administrationCampeche would be benefited from the.
Mauricio Vila signs an agreement with the Confederation of CataluñaThe Governor of Yucatan, Mauricio Vila.
Fire in Baca consumes more than two hectares of undergrowthIn the former tire shop named.
Under investigation 21 cases of acute childhood hepatitis in Mexico: López-GatellHugo López-Gatell, Undersecretary of Federal Health,.
A farewell to Esther, a victim of femicide in Huhí, YucatanA very sad day was lived.
First electric carriages arrive in MéridaOn May 17th, a ship from.
AMLO says he will announce a list of vacancies for Mexican doctors on May 24After the controversy generated by the.
Micro-entrepreneurs celebrate the elimination of the use of face masksThe president of the Merida Small.
Traditional Mayan medicine is being revalued at theIf you are interested in traditional.
Interesting article, a lesson in economics. It is odd that “economic success” never seems to benefit the local people and laborers who produce the product. This is a form of “extraction economics.”