Avocado demand soars as producers struggle to keep up

High demand in China is pushing avocado producers to grow more of the most highly polluting fruit, meaning more carbon dioxide (CO2) will be pumped into the atmosphere.

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In 2017, global avocado output was 978,139 tonnes. That’s up from 841,880 tonnes in 2014. The upward market trend means last year, over two million tonnes of CO2 was released by the avocado industry alone. This is based on the average carbon footprint of one avocado.

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The spike is due to increases in China and the continuing fashion for avocados in the west. Steve Barnard, President of Mission Produce, the world’s largest avocado distributor, said: “We are very excited about the growth we’ve seen in China over the past several years. By opening the Mr Avocado Ripe Centre in Shanghai, we will be able to provide ripe fruit to the market and accelerate that growth… It appears to just double every year, from what we've seen.”

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A spokesperson for London Fresh Ltd, a UK fruit importer, said they have seen a growth in demand. He added: “We get our avocados from Peru, sometimes Mexico. We’ve definitely noticed an upward trend in avocados during the last 5 years…You have a lot of hype around them nowadays. It’s just fashionable.”

Avocados emit around 420g of CO2 into the atmosphere each. This compares with just 80g per banana. Most of this is due to the distances travelled and storage facilities. An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report says Earth only has a finite amount of CO2 left to emit before dangerous consequences. It says continued high emissions would likely “amplify existing risks and create new risks for natural and human systems”.