Moves are currently on to promote value chains in Mexican avocados in a bid to standardise prices and maintain product quality. This is coming following the growing success of Mexican avocados in the US and in some European Union countries.
Mexican businessman and specialist, Doporto Alejandre, explains that Michoacán is the main avocado-producing state in Mexico, as well as the only state that is certified to export the fruit to the US, increasing the requirement to maintain export levels.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have presented their Agricultural Outlook for 2021-2030 and it shows that avocados are expected to become the most traded tropical fruit during 2021 and the following decade.
For Mexico, the report looks positive because it expects that the country will have exponential growth of 5.2 percent per year in the production and export of avocado, placing it with a 63 percent share of world exports by 2030.
Alejandre stressed that as the value chains adjacent to Michoacán producers adjust, they will experience greater growth worldwide, becoming a solid producer market and international export benchmark.
“As argued by the Association of Producers and Packers and Exporters of Avocado in Mexico (APEAM), the Michoacán fruit is still the highest quality worldwide.
“It is highly valued and accounts for 82% of the country’s total production; however, the value chains that involve its production, storage, distribution, transportation and marketing require competitive advantages and greater strengths’’, he said.
Promoting the value chains of Michoacán producers will serve to compensate for the growing expansion in the production supply of countries such as Peru, Colombia and Kenya.
Before the pandemic, Mexico reached 47 percent share in world avocado exports, which were equivalent to almost 6.3 billion dollars, he said.
“This was a result of the expansion in the area devoted to avocado cultivation, so this adds to the need to promote the strengthening of value chains.”
