Category: Avocado Institute

The popularity of Mexican avocados has skyrocketed in the past decade—and the growth shows no signs of slowing.

Avocado imports to the U.S. from Mexico doubled from 1.2 to 2.4 billion pounds between 2014 and 2021. Such a rapid increase in demand could have required doubling the use of natural resources such as water and trees to produce double the avocado supply. However, thanks to the Association of Avocado Exporting Producers and Packers of Mexico’s (APEAM) continued commitment to sustainability, the use of natural resources to grow avocados in Mexico has barely increased.

As part of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, APEAM has committed to meeting the high sustainability standards set by the U.N.’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs).

APEAM’s most recent update to the biannual Communication on Engagement report, submitted to the U.N. and Global Compact stakeholders in 2022, details new efforts the association will prioritize and plans for meeting the present avocado demand without compromising future generations’ economic growth, environment, and the well-being of everyone touched by the avocado industry.

Here are four key areas in which APEAM will be focusing its sustainability strategy for the Mexican avocado industry.

The ‘Green Agenda’
When joining the U.N. Global Compact in 2020, APEAM conducted a qualitative study of the sustainability of avocado farming in Mexico, measuring it against four of the U.N. Global Compact’s 17 SDGs. The Michoacán region of Mexico has a unique environment that makes it the only place in the world able to keep up with U.S. avocado consumption. This diagnostic study, titled the “Green Agenda,” provides a snapshot of Michoacán’s soil, water, biodiversity, and forests and covers avocado growers’ use of agrochemicals, the sustainability of agricultural activities, their effects on climate change, and social responsibility. The study’s findings have influenced APEAM’s sustainability strategies to create a positive social, environmental, and economic impact on Michoacán.

Green Alliances
U.N. SDG No. 17 regards building strategic partnerships to achieve the other 16 goals. To further its active pursuits to improve water management in avocado farming, support life on land, and promote responsible consumption and production, APEAM has built key partnerships with:

• United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
• Mexican Hass Avocado Importers Association (MHAIA).
• Agricultural and Rural Development Ministry of Mexico (SADER).
• Senasica.

1. Water Conservation

Research shows that 61% of avocado orchards in Michoacán rely on natural, seasonal irrigation in their fields. Another 36% use micro-sprinkling or drip irrigation to water their crops. This means 97% of avocado orchards depend on sustainable irrigation methods. To reduce avocado agriculture’s water footprint, APEAM has created several systems and initiatives, including:

• A system of 42 weather stations and 12 humidity probes that monitor moisture in each orchard and determine irrigation frequency to combat root rot and reduce water use.
• A soil preservation program that prioritizes orchards in steep areas with slopes over a 15% angle, which are at high risk for water erosion.
• A comprehensive water footprint study, currently in the works, to ensure a sustainable future.

2. Responsible Use of Agrochemicals

An industry’s water footprint is more than the amount of water used; it also involves the concentration of substances in the water due to the actions of the business. To ensure responsible use of agrochemicals, APEAM verifies national and international compliance with avocado producers to:

• Work only with authorized agrochemicals.
• Stay within maximum residue limits for the safety of human health, wildlife, and the orchard’s surrounding ecosystems.
• Additionally, APEAM promotes the use of necessary personal protection equipment when applying any agrochemicals.

3. Responsible Resource Consumption and Avocado Production

Responsible production patterns require proper education on field safety and good farming practices. That’s why APEAM has invested in a range of educational initiatives:

• APEAM Safety App: Provides virtual training sessions for avocado producers.
• Certified Lead Trainers: Have delivered over 100 classroom-based courses on produce safety.
• Technicians: Work with Michoacán’s 22 local plant health boards to promote good farming practices by conducting reviews, safety training, internal audits, and more
• Field Safety Operation Manual: Currently in the works to standardize the National Sanitation Safety and Quality Service Contamination Risk Reduction Systems requirements and the FDA’s Produce Safety Rule of the Food Safety Modernization Act./li>

4. Forest Conservation

Michoacán is one of Mexico’s top five states in forest production and biological diversity. APEAM’s forest conservation initiatives include:

• • Restoring damaged areas.
  • Rallying producers, packers, and the surrounding community to protect the environment.
  • Coordinating groups and municipalities to ensure that government authorities promote forest conservation initiatives.
  • Instituting forest brigades and a fire alert system.
  • A Reforestation Program that has planted more than 2.9 million trees as of 2022 and yielded a tree survival rate of more than 80%.

A More Sustainable Avocado Industry

Since joining the U.N. Global Compact, APEAM has successfully aligned the Mexican avocado industry’s sustainability practices with the U.N.’s SDGs. Demand for avocados continues to rise, and with responsible farming practices made a priority each year, Mexico’s avocado industry, its surrounding communities, and the ecosystems critical to our planet will thrive.

Learn more about how the avocado industry preserves biodiversity through sustainable development.

Imports of Mexican Hass avocados continue to make substantial contributions to the U.S. and Mexican economies according to the latest economic contribution analysis conducted by Texas A&M University¹ during the 2021-2022 growing season. Since 1997,the avocado supply from Mexico in the U.S. has jumped to more than 2 billion pounds annually², and more than 4 billion pounds in the last two years alone³–fueled by consumers’ love of the healthful fruit while also positively benefiting U.S. national and state economies.

¹ 2022 Update: The Economic Benefits of U.S. Avocado Imports from Mexico This analysis utilizes the Impact Analysis and Planning Model (IMPLAN) to measure the jobs, revenues, wages and taxes generated by the imports along the value chain on the national and state economies. IMPLAN is an input-output model of the entire U.S. economy that captures the relationships between industries and estimates the economic effects (direct, indirect, and induced). The IMPLAN model reports on four specific types of economic effects: employment contribution, labor income, value-added, and output or gross sales contribution.
² The Economic Benefits of U.S. Avocado Imports from Mexico
³ Hass Avocado Board Volume Data

The avocado industry in Mexico is committed to the sustainable development of the avocado-producing region in Michoacán. Its members and the industry’s prosperity depend on the conservation of the natural environment, soil, forests, and water, as well as the economic and social stability of Michoacán’s communities.

That is why APEAM and MHAIA have aligned their sustainability strategy with the UN 2030 Agenda and international regulations to conserve local forests and protect the natural resources and habitats depended upon by so many. Here is how the avocado industry has helped so far.

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The Association of Avocado Exporting Producers and Packers of Mexico (APEAM) has helped expedite an effective, safe return to daily operations in the wake of a brief pause in avocado imports to the United States in February. By diligently collaborating with U.S. and Mexican authorities, APEAM helped protect and strengthen the supply chains that bear an important socioeconomic significance for both countries. The $3 billion Mexican avocado industry contributed to more than $6.5 billion in U.S. economic output in 2019-2020, per a Texas A&M University report.

To accelerate the process that would lead to resumed avocado exports, APEAM facilitated communication between Mexican and American authorities. The organization’s involvement included enacting additional safety measures for USDA inspectors in the orchards who check for pests, diseases, and full compliance with food quality protocols. APEAM also worked closely with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico’s regional security officer, Mexico’s national plant protection organization (SENASICA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to revive the supply chain operations quickly and efficiently.

The Mexican avocado industry has established a vibrant local economic engine for Michoacán that has encouraged regional economic growth. It has created approximately 78,000 direct and permanent jobs and 310,000 indirect and seasonal jobs in Michoacán, and more than 33,000 jobs for American workers. Shortly after imports to the U.S. resumed in early March, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar visited a Michoacán avocado-packing plant. Salazar’s visit to Mexico’s avocado-growing hub emphasized the fruit’s impact on the vitality of the two countries’ economies and how they work together. “Now it is clear to me the real value that the so called ‘green gold’ has for our supply chains, for the families of producers, and for the region’s prosperity,” Salazar said in a March 9 tweet.

I visited avocado producers and packers in Michoacan. Now it is clear to me the real value that the so called “green gold” has for our supply chains, for the families of producers, and for the region’s prosperity. https://t.co/MLEBId6Asm

— Embajador Ken Salazar (@USAmbMex) March 9, 2022

To reinforce the safety and proficiency of an industry depended upon by so many individuals, APEAM worked with the USDA and the Mexican government to create an intelligence and security unit that directly supports the export program. Also, an operational security plan established by the Michoacán government was implemented immediately. The implementation of these safety protocols is auxiliary to existing safety measures and APEAM’s responsibility to ensure food safety and quality, and will help keep USDA inspectors safe and enhance the full value chain in Mexico.

APEAM’s heightened commitment to align with established trade agreements and actively participate with Mexican and U.S. authorities is an indication of the avocado export program’s bureaucratic efficiency and positive working relationships that keep local economies thriving.

Click here to learn more about the economic importance of the Mexican avocado industry.

The Association of Avocado Exporting Producers and Packers of Mexico (APEAM) is celebrating a full decade of groundbreaking support of the environment and social growth in Michoacán. Over the last 10 years, APEAM has cultivated 2.6 million pine trees in Michoacán and invested more than $3 million in the academic infrastructure of local schools.

This is an important milestone for APEAM, whose Green Agenda framework is built on the promise of increasing sustainability efforts in the Mexican avocado industry while helping the socioeconomical prosperity of Michoacán communities. The Green Agenda is an internal technical report with a general diagnosis of the environmental situation of the avocado-producing region, and the areas of opportunity to improve the sustainable production of avocados, including reforestation and forest conservation.

The sustainable strategies outlined within the Green Agenda are officially aligned with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and are designed to reinforce APEAM’s commitment to the care of the environment.

A Decade of Reforestation

To combat the global tragedy of deforestation, APEAM launched its reforestation initiative in 2011 to restore the natural biodiversity of Michoacán. At the program’s 10-year anniversary, APEAM has reforested 1,800 hectares of Michoacán with 2.6 million pine trees of various species native to the area.

The survival rate of these trees stands at an impressive 85%. This rate is made possible by cultivating saplings in nurseries before moving them in the wild, where they are selectively planted with elevation and location in mind.

A Decade of Educational Support

This year also marks 10 years of partnership between APEAM and the Lazos Foundation, a nonprofit that has been helping to transform some of the Mexico’s most under-resourced public schools for 25 years. The two organizations have worked together since 2011 to the benefit of more than 6,000 children at 23 schools across 15 municipalities in Michoacán.

Over the past decade, APEAM has committed nearly $3 million to the Lazos Foundation, including $500,000 in school supplies that have kept students in school while enabling new students to enroll. The contributions have been evident in Michoacán: The state’s average rate of student enrollment is only

The financial support provided by APEAM has also made the opening of five new educational facilities across the state possible, and has equipped educators and parents with the tools and knowledge needed to promote their students’ success.

Click here to learn more about APEAM and its sustainable efforts.

Between 1998 and 2017, per capita avocado consumption in the U.S. skyrocketed from 1.5 pounds all the way to 7.5 pounds, an unseen rate of growth for any other fresh produce item. This growing demand for avocados is not being met by U.S. producers. In fact, domestic production of avocados has actually dropped by more than 45% over the past few decades.

Rather, the cause for this growing demand among U.S. consumers is due to imported avocados. Between 2015 and 2017, annual deliveries of both domestic and imported avocados totaled 1.1 million metric tons, with annual imports from the Mexican state of Michoacan averaging 781,000 during that time frame.

Put another way, Michoacan growers supplied more than 70% of all avocados consumed in the U.S. during that three-year window.

Mexico continues to thrive as an avocado growing and exporting powerhouse. According to the USDA annual report, by 2018, Mexican avocados had captured 87% of the U.S. market share. And since Michoacan is currently the only Mexican state with phytosanitary clearance to export avocados to the U.S., growers in that state deserve the credit for supplying those avocados.

Phytosanitary certificates are issued by governmental authorities to show that shipments are free from harmful pests and plant disease. Per the USDA, only plants and unprocessed or unmanufactured plant products are eligible to receive phytosanitary certificates.

By June 2020, the USDA predicts that Mexican avocado exports to the United States will increase by more than 12% to 1 million metric tons.

While most Mexican avocado exports currently go to the U.S., the USDA data indicates that Canada and Japan also represent significant export markets, with imports of nearly 89,000 metric tons and almost 70,000 metric tons, respectively, from July 2018 to June 2019.  Furthermore, the USDA says Mexican avocado producers are working to develop new Middle Eastern markets like Turkey, Kuwait, and Dubai. There has even been interest expressed in expanding the market as far east as Hong Kong.

Given the apparently insatiable consumer demand for avocados, the Mexican avocado industry faces the dual challenge of increasing production and obtaining better yields, while exercising responsible stewardship of their environmental resources. The USDA notes that Mexican producers are working with the Association of Avocado Producers, Packers, and Exporters of Mexico (APEAM) to improve environmental conditions and cultivate healthier soils.

November 2, 2019 – To many in Michoacán, Mexico it was a day like any other, but for those working in the avocado industry it was monumental. The cause for excitement was owed to the U.S. ambassador, Christopher Landau, and his family who journeyed November 2, 2019 to one of Michoacán’s 30,000 avocado orchards.

Not only was this the first time Landau — who was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico in August 2019 — has visited the avocado groves in Michoacán, but the outing marked the first occasion any U.S. ambassador has toured the area west of Mexico City that some refer to as Avocadoland.

Landau and his family had the opportunity to observe and celebrate the everyday qualities and features of Michoacán that have made it the avocado capital of Mexico and the largest source of the fruit for American consumers. The ambassador’s visit emphasized the importance of the ongoing support for the Mexican avocado-export initiatives.

Michoacán, Mexico: A Region Like No Other

It’s no coincidence that there are more than 30,000 avocado orchards in Michoacán. The area is blessed with rich volcanic soil, the perfect mixture of sunlight and rainfall, and land ripe for cultivation at a range of altitudes. This unique combination of geographical features in Michoacán creates a distinct habitat that allows high-quality avocados to be grown year-round.

Besides witnessing the beautiful and exceptionally productive terrain of Michoacán firsthand, Ambassador Landau also received a personal lesson on the type of infrastructure and skills needed to translate agricultural potential into robust avocado production. In the orchard, the ambassador and his family were shown how to pick avocados using a long pole and basket that makes plucking the fruit from high branches efficient.

The Landaus didn’t have to wait long to enjoy the rewards of their labor. After a little instruction, they learned to use a traditional granite molcajete to mash the avocados they picked themselves, producing handmade guacamole, avocado toast, and even a blended avocado drink — all with fresh, ripe fruit right off the tree.

The Significance of Avocado Exports

While the ambassador and his family enjoyed a memorable time in Mexico’s leading avocado region, they aren’t the only ones who have benefited from the special relationship between the U.S. and Mexico in the past years and the avocados it has produced. In a Twitter post from the day of his visit, Landau praised the operations of the avocado industry in Michoacán, calling it “a great example of the benefits of free trade.”

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a final rule allowing for the export of Mexican avocados to the U.S. from all of Mexico, not just Michoacán. The decision was made after a pest-risk analysis, which concluded that avocado imports from other Mexican states would not jeopardize the health of American flora, fauna, and consumers. These cooperative efforts have facilitated a steady and reliable supply of high-quality Mexican avocados to the U.S. in previous years.

The upside for American consumers eager for avocados is obvious. But the collaboration has also yielded significant economic benefits, including 75,000 direct and permanent jobs in Mexico. Many of these jobs are in Michoacán itself, a state that was once the largest source of illegal migrant workers to the U.S.

A recent study by Texas A&M highlighted the tangible benefits that Mexican avocado imports have made on the U.S. economy. In 2017 alone, the import of avocados from Mexico contributed $3.4 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), $932 million in taxes, and helped create more than 29,000 well-paying jobs. The impact was largest in California and Texas, where avocado imports added $514 million and $294.6 million to the GDP, respectively.

All of which is to say that Ambassador Landau and his family had many good reasons to celebrate and promote ongoing support for avocado exports to the U.S. from both Michoacán and from across Mexico. An inside look into the production chain of Mexican avocados — and a taste of their very own fresh guacamole — undoubtedly made the visit an unforgettable one for the Landaus.

Mexican avocado growers and packers have special certifications and trainings, follow strict sanitary measures, and put their produce through rigorous quality checks before exporting any avocados to the U.S. Here’s a brief overview of the process.