Green gold lures avocado gangs
Chile’s growers plagued by fruit rustlers
Chile’s l ocation had protected the country from a continent-wide crime wave — until now. This year, demand from European millennials and rich Chinese has pushed the price of avocados so high, even Chilean gangs are getting in on the act.
Theft of the so-called green gold has become big business.
The crime has reached such a level that Crescente Molina, who produced 100,000kg of avocados last year in central Chile, had to take drastic action.
“We already pulled out avocado trees in the areas most vulnerable to theft because this is no longer profitable,” says Molina. “We have replaced them with citrus trees, which are not as appetising to thieves.”
Avocados are the staple of every Chilean table for breakfast, lunchtime salads and afternoon snacks. Now soaring demand, a long-term drought in Chile and heavy rains in neighbouring Peru have pushed prices to record highs. Trips to the gym or work can be spiced up with furtive deals on the informal avocado market, with people selling them from the back of their cars.
While thefts have always existed, it has gone from people breaking into fields at night to organised armed groups assaulting producers in broad daylight, says Francisco Contardo, general manager of Chile’s avocado producers’ association. During the harvest season, from August to February this year, 10 bands were dismantled and 50 people were charged with theft.
Now Chile has copied the avocado police of Mexico and California’s “guac cops”, so-called because of guacamole, appointing its first avocado-focused prosecutor.
Chileans are finding creative ways to take advantage of soaring prices. A campaign by retail giant Ripley last month offered to accept avocados as payment for some of its products. One client, Camilo Briceno, took them up on their offer, paying for a US$475 ($675) mobile phone with 58kg of avocados.
Briceno, who sells avocados on social media, says business is booming. He is selling up to 500kg of avocados a day to supermarkets and personal home deliveries.
Avocado prices have spiked recently because of last year’s heavy rains in Peru. As a result, shipments of Peruvian avocados that satisfied Chile’s demand during winter have faltered this year.
That came after a severe drought in 2014 and 2015 forced producers in some regions to rip up as much as 40 per cent of their orchards, according to the fruit exporters association. Total production in Chile reached 225,000 tonnes last season, 10 per cent higher than the previous season, but still lower than the 2009-2010 peak of 293,000 tonnes.
Demand from abroad is also soaring. Back in 2015, Chile exported 48 per cent of its harvest. This year it was 71 per cent.
Prices should dip when Chile’s harvest starts in August, even if most fruit are sold abroad. Long-term, though, prices are set to gain.
While Europe is still Chile’s largest exporting market, with almost half of the country’s production shipped there during the last season, producers are turning their eyes to China.
About 10 per cent of Chilean avocado exports were shipped there in the last season after local producers launched campaigns to present the product in six Chinese cities.
The producers’ association estimates that Chinese demand will be about 60,000 tonnes in coming years. About a third of that could come from Chile, according to a publication by the World Avocado Association.
“Avocados have gone from being an ingredient in a salad to being seen as super-food thanks to its nutritional characteristics,” Contardo says.
“With consumers growing more concerned about what they eat, avocado is a premium product that has become a staple in any household.”
— Bloomberg