March 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Twitter that he might close the border with Mexico, ostensibly to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants from Mexico. If the heavily trafficked border between the United States and Mexico were closed, not only would people be unable to move, but the impact would not end there. One of the first concerns was avocado imports. It was feared that within three weeks the United States would face a shortage of avocados due to a border closure. The closure did not actually happen, but it shows how much the United States relies on Mexico for avocado production. Not only the United States but countries in Asia and Europe also depend on Mexico. Mexico is the world’s largest producer of avocados, accounting for about 34% of global production.

However, the threats to Mexico’s avocado industry are not limited to U.S. border-closure policies. In Mexico, public security has deteriorated under the influence of drug trafficking groups (※1). These groups appear to be having a major negative impact on the avocado industry as well.

Hass avocado (Photo: sandid / Pixabay)

Mexico, the world’s top avocado exporter

Global demand for avocados is rising rapidly. Worldwide avocado production reached 5.46 million tons in 2016 and is expected to continue increasing to 6.42 million tons by 2020. In the United States, the world’s largest importer of avocados, average per-capita consumption has reached about 3 kg per year. In Europe as well, imports have increased by 150% over the past decade.

One reason for this rising demand is avocados’ health benefits. Avocados are rich in nutrients—some 20 vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C and potassium. They have been shown to help lower cholesterol and are believed to help prevent disease. As a result, avocados are popular among health-conscious people. Recently, avocado toast has become popular on social media such as Instagram.

Let’s take a closer look at Mexico’s avocado industry, in a country that ranks first in the world in production, exports, and consumption.

Mexico accounts for about 45% of the world’s avocado exports, and about 80% of the avocados imported into the United States are from Mexico. About 90% of the avocados exported from Mexico are produced in the state of Michoacán. Growing avocados requires about four times as much water as growing oranges. Thanks to steady rainfall and fertile soils, Michoacán is well suited to avocado cultivation and has become the center of production.

Today, avocados account for 60% of Mexico’s agricultural income, making them a very important product for the country’s economy.

Drug trafficking groups infiltrate the avocado industry

However, as public security worsened in Mexico and political corruption and the power of drug trafficking groups grew, these groups moved into the booming avocado industry, dealing a heavy blow to the sector as a whole. Let’s look at the details.

Mexico serves as a transit point for smuggling cocaine from South American countries such as Colombia and Peru into the United States, and multiple Mexican drug trafficking groups are involved in this smuggling. They also appear to engage in crimes such as human trafficking and robbery. Within Mexico, these groups have fought each other over drug-trafficking routes. Clashes have also occurred between the government and the traffickers. In 2006, former President Felipe Calderón came to view the situation not as “crime” but as a “war,” and began taking military measures against the groups. As a result, about 150,000 people were killed nationwide between 2006 and 2018. The situation in Mexico since 2006 is known as the “drug war.”

Mexican Army special forces (Photo: Ejército Argentino / Wikimedia Commons)

At that time, Mexico’s government and military were corrupt. The government lost the trust of its citizens and could not effectively govern national territory, while drug trafficking groups came to exert influence over much of the country. As a result, the groups developed ties with local governments and penetrated various regions. To consolidate their drug-trade base, they used intimidation and bribery to influence local police and authorities. Seeking additional revenue streams, they began intervening in local industries and set their sights on the highly profitable avocado sector.

In Michoacán in particular, the group involved in the avocado industry was the Knights Templar (Caballeros Templarios). They obtained information on avocado farms held by the agriculture minister, learned each farm’s income, and began demanding funds across the entire avocado industry—growers, packing houses, and trading companies—calling it “taxes.” If the “tax” wasn’t paid, they kidnapped people for ransom or killed them. In this way, they took in 150 million dollars per year.

A Mexican avocado factory (Photo: Pan American Health Organization PHAO / Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0])

Farmers were forced to raise avocado prices to pay the traffickers. Local governments were unable to deter the groups’ activities. The groups also exerted influence over local police and threatened or killed residents, causing many to flee their communities. As a result, crime increased and public security in Michoacán worsened; between 2006 and 2015, 8,258 people were killed in the state.

The “avocado police”

In Michoacán, in place of corrupt government and police, groups of farmers and residents began organizing for self-defense against the traffickers.

As noted, Michoacán is the center of avocado production in Mexico, and within the state, the city of Tancítaro exports more than one million dollars’ worth of avocados per day. In 2013, with no effective police in the area, residents seeking to protect themselves formed vigilante groups to drive out the traffickers. Avocado farmers, who had been targets of exploitation, provided funding and support to these groups.

The initial self-defense groups (Autodefensas) were mainly organized to protect themselves from drug traffickers and others and lacked offensive capabilities. A new, well-armed, and well-trained organization was therefore needed. The influential avocado association created CUSEPT (Tancítaro Public Security Corps) to protect Michoacán’s avocados and provided training.

CUSEPT sought to organize an armed self-defense force drawn from ordinary local citizens such as avocado farmers. To ensure members could be trusted not to be connected to the traffickers, one requirement for joining was to be from Tancítaro or to have lived there for more than ten years. CUSEPT members wore body armor, carried rifles and handguns, and received substantial training. Although being armed is prohibited by law in Mexico, CUSEPT uses guns smuggled from the United States. The traffickers’ weapons are also smuggled from the United States. To prevent incursions by the groups, sturdy checkpoints were installed at town entrances, and patrols were conducted in bulletproof trucks. Later, they also obtained cooperation from official national police.

Thanks to the activities of CUSEPT and others, the traffickers’ power weakened, and threats and killings by the groups declined. Avocado farmers who had been taken over by the groups were able to resume cultivation without fear of exploitation.

The future of the avocado industry

Some towns, like Tancítaro, have succeeded in expelling the traffickers. However, there are many such groups across the country, and other regions continue to see their avocado industries targeted. In fact, in Michoacán the “Knights Templar” have waned, but the power of a group from a neighboring state known as the “New Generation (Nueva Generacion)” is growing.

In many cases, regions are nominally controlled by authorities such as governors and mayors, but corruption and favoritism can still disrupt order. Even in areas where crime has decreased, many retain the same power structures as during the “war.” Because Tancítaro’s avocado police are not part of a system governed by law, they cannot build political or social institutions. Their purpose is to protect the avocado industry; they are not an organization for the safety and welfare of citizens or the town as a whole.

(Photo: Pxhere)

Problems surrounding avocados are not limited to those involving drug trafficking groups. Land clearing for avocado production is accelerating deforestation, and the large volumes of water required for cultivation are causing water shortages. Deforestation and water scarcity extend beyond the country to neighboring states. In addition, unfair pricing and low wages have left many farmers and workers in poverty. At the same time, some drug trafficking groups seize money from corrupt governments and plantations that exploit low-wage labor and provide funds to build schools and hospitals in poor areas. As a result, in some regions these groups enjoy a certain degree of popular support.

Although avocados have grown increasingly popular in recent years for their health benefits, Mexico—their main producer—is seeing its entire avocado industry plunged into crisis by drug trafficking groups. As avocados become more popular and demand rises further, profits for the industry as a whole will increase. On the other hand, the industry will be targeted even more by these groups, and ordinary citizens will be caught up and victimized in the ensuing conflicts. Security costs for vigilante groups and others protecting the industry will rise, and as traffickers demand even more funds in the form of “taxes,” price increases for avocados will become unavoidable. In this way, even consumers in countries far from Mexico both influence and are influenced by the problems inside Mexico.

Moreover, the groups that threaten the avocado industry derive their main income from the drug trade. To remove drug trafficking groups from the avocado sector and restore public security, it will be essential to crack down on and dismantle them. For that, Mexico’s government and police need to regain normal functionality. Mexico’s domestic issues are also deeply intertwined with the global drug problem. As long as there are consumers of illegal drugs in Europe, the United States, and Asia and demand persists in those regions, international drug trafficking and the activities of these groups are unlikely to stop. Responsibility lies not only within Mexico but also abroad, and responses on a global scale will be needed.

A church in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán (Photo: Ricardo Villar / Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0])

(※1) These groups are commonly called “drug cartels.” However, a cartel refers to a situation in which firms in an industry collude to set prices and monopolize a market. Because the drug problem in Mexico and Latin America does not have this structure, it is considered inappropriate to use the term “cartel.”

Writer: Saki Takeuchi
Graphics: Saki Takeuchi

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