Drug cartels move in on Avocado

Dozens of trucks an hour setting off from the avocado belt in Mexico’s western state of Michoacan for the US, armed robbers are zeroing in on the fast-growing Avocado multi-billion-dollar industry. The rise in Avocado related crime has turned part of the state into no-go areas even for the police.

Juan whose family has farms near Uruapan, the city in the center of Avocado production, said: “We have tried to work with the government to combat crime but even they are afraid in some areas and don’t dare go in”.

Demand for Avocado leaped ahead of the Super Bowl, America’s biggest sporting event, with Mexico shipping a  record 127, 000 tonnes in the 2018-2019  season, up  4 per cent from the 1.05m produced in 2017-18.

Mexican export rose 5.4  per cent , sales to the US, the largest importer of Mexican Avocados,  bring in almost $2bn a year.

“Because the degree of enforcement in Mexico is low if criminals see an opportunity they will start doing it. Avocados could become a conflict commodity”. Until recently Mexico’s organised crime groups the main source of revenues from avocados centered on demands for protection money form farmers. But the sharp fall in the price of Mexican opium paste has forced them to diversify as they have started hijacking truckloads of fruit for export.

American’s increased use of Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid used for pain relief, pushed down the price of heroin, which in turn slashed the price of Mexican Opium between 2017 and 2018 with a price per kilogram falling to a quarter in some key producing areas.

Avocado business becomes so dangerous that several municipalities have armed private security guards to protect over 30, 000 small avocado farmers in the town of Michoacan.