Oro Verde, the Avocado Boom in Mexico

My conversation with a local grower

Guacamole will be the special guest at many Super Bowl parties in a couple of weeks. Seven of ten avocados consumed will have come from the state of Michoacan where I live. I recently visited the epicenter of production to get a local perspective.

Standing on an uprise in the village of Tarascon, Michoacan, avocado was the only tree I could see in town and on the surrounding hills. “There was not a single avocado tree here 35 years ago,” local grower Saul Bedolla commented to me. “We used to plant wheat, and then a neighbor planted 30 avocado trees. He didn’t even take very good care of them, but within four years he had a harvest that made a lot more money than wheat!”

When the NAFTA free trade agreement of 1997 opened the doors for the exportation of avocados from Mexico to the US, both production here and consumption there escalated rapidly, a true win-…