Avocados ‘funding Mexican drug lords’
IT’S the sort of news that could have millennials choking on their favourite toast topping.
The avocado – darling of healthconscious foodies – has been caught in the crossfire of underworld murders, kidnappings and extortion in Mexico.
The country’s notorious crime cartels have been turning their attentions to cashing in on crops after rising demand made it a valuable commodity.
Gangsters normally involved in the drugs trade have reportedly seized control of farms and orchards in the country’s Michoacan region amid a rise in violence.
One major cartel, Knights Templar, is thought to earn more than £150million a year by selling what have been nicknamed ‘blood avocados’ to British buyers.
Now many cafes and restaurants in the UK are removing the fruit from the menu in protest. Katy Brill, owner of the Wild Strawberry café near Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, used to serve 1,000 avocados a week but has now removed them from the menu. Her £8.50 avocado on toast dish has been replaced with sauteed garlic mushrooms.
She said: ‘The Western world’s obsession with avocado has been placing unprecedented demand on avocado farmers, pushing up prices to the point where there are even reports of Mexican drug cartels controlling lucrative exports.’
She also said ‘extensive farming’ of the fruit was adding to greenhouse emissions and placing pressure on local water supplies. Chef Joseph Ryan, of the Wildflower vegetarian restaurant in Peckham, South East London, said he was disturbed by reports of killings after Mexican gangsters got involved in the lucrative trade. ‘To be honest, I think we might just be entering a post-avocado era,’ he said.
Avocados have been lauded as a ‘superfood’ thanks to high levels of essential vitamins and minerals.
Sales in Britain have increased by 184 per cent in five years. They are also grown in other parts of Central America, South America and California. But Michoacán, where avocados are known locally as ‘green gold’, is the world’s top producer.