Unquenchable avocado thirst is sucking Chile dry

Avocado mania isn’t subsiding. From the endless variations on #avocadotoast to the questionable #avocadoproposal, the avocado as popular as ever. But the fruit is a thirsty crop, and the inhabitants of Chile’s largest avocado-producing region are blaming a booming British appetite for water shortages.

In the province of Petorca, Chile’s avocado capital, locals claim that in order to meet the growing demand, farmers are “illegally diverting” groundwater to irrigate their crops. This has aggravated a regional drought, The Guardian reports, and has forced residents to rely on “often contaminated” water delivered by cistern trucks.

A 2014 analysis of the transported water showed levels of coliform bacteria (a sign of fecal contamination) far exceeding the legal limit. “In order to send good avocados to Europeans, we end up drinking water with s — t in it,” activist Veronica Vilches of Rural Potable Water said.

“People get sick because of the drought — we find ourselves having to choose between cooking and washing, going to the bathroom in holes in the ground or in plastic bags, while big agri-businesses earn more and more.”

It takes 2,000 litres of water to produce just one kilogram of avocados, according to the Water Footprint Network. But because of Petorca’s dry climate, even more water is required. According to agronomist and activist Rodrigo Mundaca, “Every cultivated hectare requires 100,000 litres of water per day, an amount equivalent to what a thousand people would use in a day.”

Major British supermarkets — including Tesco and Waitrose — source avocados from the Valparaiso region where Petorca is situated, according to The Guardian. In 2016, the U.K. reportedly imported upwards of 17,000 tonnes of the fruit from Chile, the majority of which (roughly 67 per cent) came from Valparaiso.

The U.K. market for avocados rose 27 per cent last year, while Quartz determined that demand in Europe as a whole soared 300 per cent from 2012 to 2017.

“Here there are more avocados than people, but only people are lacking water, never the avocados,” Vilches said. She told The Guardian that although she has received death threats and bribes in response to her activism, she will continue her mission to protect water rights.