MEXICO CITY — Top suppliers of Mexican avocados continue to work with growers who use land where forests have been cleared illegally, a new investigation shows. Top suppliers Calavo Growers, Fresh Del Monte Produce, Mission Produce and West Pak Avocado purchased avocados in 2023 and 2024 from illegally deforested land, according to a new investigation from Climate Rights International (CRI), an environmental and human rights group, and Mexican NGO Guardián Forestal. “The continued sourcing of avocados from deforested land by these companies is in defiance of the public statements of Mexican and U.S. officials and shows a serious disregard for the well-being of local communities and the environment,” CRI senior policy advisor Daniel Wilkinson said in a statement. The investigation looked at Mexican avocado shipping records from 2023 and the first trimester of 2024, finding 60 instances of suppliers buying avocados from deforested land in some of the country’s top producing states, including Michoacán and Jalisco. Michoacán, in central Mexico, produced over 1.9 million avocados last year while neighboring Jalisco produced over 322,000, making avocado production one of the area’s top industries. In total, Mexico exported nearly $3 billion of avocados to the US last year, marking a nearly 75% increase in production over the last decade, according to USDA. But the industry’s massive growth hasn’t come with proper regulation, critics say. Michoacán has lost about 17% of its humid primary forests in the last decade, according to Global Forest Watch, much of it from avocados, other agriculture and logging.…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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