US-Mexico: US Avocado Sellers Fail to End Sourcing from Illegally Deforested Land in Mexico

(New York, August 6, 2024) – Leading U.S. avocado importers Calavo Growers, Fresh Del Monte Produce, Mission Produce, and West Pak Avocado have continued to source from Mexican orchards containing illegally deforested land in 2023 and 2024 even after being informed of deforestation within their supply chains, Climate Rights International said today based on a study conducted with the Mexican NGO Guardián Forestal. The companies should immediately stop buying from orchards on illegally deforested land and ensure that their sourcing practices are not incentivizing the destruction of Mexico’s forests.   

The four companies have supplied avocados from Mexico to major supermarket chains throughout the United States. Albertsons, Costco, Kroger, Target, Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and Whole Foods all sourced from at least one of the four companies in 2023.    

A November 2023 report by Climate Rights International, “Unholy Guacamole: Deforestation, Water Capture, and Violence Behind Mexico’s Avocado Exports to the U.S. and Other Major Markets,” documented how the U.S.-Mexico avocado trade is fueling widespread illegal deforestation and water shortages in the Mexican states of Michoacán and Jalisco, and how local residents whose efforts to protect their forests and water supplies have been met with violence and intimidation. Using shipping records obtained through Mexico’s transparency law, the report revealed that the four top U.S. importers, as well as other companies, had sourced avocados from orchards containing illegally deforested land in 2022. 

“By buying from orchards containing illegally cleared lands, the companies are effectively incentivizing further deforestation, as well as acts of intimidation and violence against local residents trying to stop it,” said Daniel Wilkinson, Senior Policy Advisor at Climate Rights International.  “And by continuing to do so after being informed of the consequences, they’re showing that their public commitments to sustainable sourcing are, when it comes to Mexican avocados, little more than greenwashing.”  

Climate Rights International and Guardián Forestal recently obtained avocado shipping records for 2023 and the first trimester of 2024 from the Mexican government. The organizations identified 60 examples of the four companies sourcing avocados from orchards in Michoacán containing deforested land—including 15 examples for each company. (See below for satellite images and a list of the orchards.)  

As documented in the 2023 report, virtually all of the avocado-driven deforestation in Michoacán and Jalisco over the past two decades has been illegal. Moreover, in many instances, the land has been cleared by intentionally setting forest fires, which is also a crime.  The total amount of avocado-driven deforestation in the two states over the past decade very likely exceeds 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares)—and could be more than 70,000 acres. Tens—if not hundreds—of thousands of acres of forest in the two states remain at risk of deforestation for avocado exports, according to academic studies.   

The conversion of natural forests to avocado plantations releases climate-warming greenhouse gases, reduces carbon storage, and undercuts biodiversity. It also reduces the replenishment of aquifers, which—together with the heavy and often unauthorized use of water by avocado orchards—contributes to water shortages that impact local communities.   

More than half of the 60 examples involve transactions that occurred after Climate Rights International provided the companies with documentation of deforestation within their supply chains and evidence that avocado-driven deforestation is taking a serious toll on the rights of local residents and the environment. Climate Rights International wrote to the four companies in early November 2023 and presented the main findings of the report that was released at the end of that month, including evidence indicating that they had sourced avocados from orchards containing illegally deforested land in 2022. Climate Rights International followed up with them directly several weeks later to provide the full report, which includes more than a dozen examples for each company.    

The four US-based avocado importers have stated publicly they are committed to ensuring the sustainability of their supply chains. Major supermarkets who have sourced avocados from them have made similar commitments, publicizing codes of conduct stating that suppliers must comply with certain environmental and human rights requirements, including not violating environmental laws of their countries of operation.   

In February 2024, the United States Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar – former US Senator from Colorado and Interior Secretary in the Obama administration – traveled to Michoacán, the heart of Mexican avocado production, and held a press conference with Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla in which they announced their shared commitment to halting avocado exports from illegally deforested land. “They shouldn’t have the opportunity to sell those avocados to the United States market,” Salazar said.  

“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,” said Wilkinson.  “Calavo Growers, Fresh Del Monte Produce, Mission Produce and West Pak can play a critical role in ending deforestation by the avocado industry by ending their sourcing from illegally deforested land.”