Green gold: Avocado farming on the rise in Africa

A few years ago, my partner went to the Golden Gate Produce Terminal in South SF on a whim. It wasn’t entirely clear if members of the public were welcome, but no one seemed to notice or care.<p>While perusing the stocks, my partner happened upon a smiling vendor with a big knife standing beside a pile of boxed avocados. He said, “You have to taste my avocados!” as he sliced open a petite dark green fruit. My partner accepted the cube offered on a toothpick and gingerly placed it onto his tongue. Upon closing his mouth, the cube seemed to spontaneously melt into one of the most buttery, savory, rich substances he had ever tasted. Needless to say, my partner brought home a big box of avocados that day.<p>I was skeptical when he first told me the story, but we quickly had a knife and spoons at the ready and were digging in to a ripe specimen. He wasn’t lying after all, this was among the best things I had ever tasted, similar to an excellent piece of salmon sashimi but… better. I confess to you that we ate that big box of avocados in a week or less, our intake only limited by the rate at which the fruit became ripe. We aren’t normally gluttonous people, but those were some amazing avocados.<p>We eat store bought avocados several times a week, but I unfortunately haven’t had a single one in the years since that was even a hundredth as delicious as those wonderful fruits. If anything, the flavor and quality seems to be on the decline. We often joke about sneaking back into the produce terminal to find avocado man and his delicious avocados. Maybe one of these days…

Given the globalization of Mexican cartels and avocados being a staple export of theirs, I am curious to see the outcome. Will the cartels go to Africa or will they stomach the shrinking margins on their product?

Is there research or a startup working to genetically modify tropical fruit trees into a form that would be easier to cultivate in greenhouses. There doesn&#x27;t seem to be any good reason why an avocado can&#x27;t grow on a vine or even on a seaweed.<p>Such fruit could be cheaper and higher quality as it would be local and could reach ripeness on the plant. And it will be less susceptible to anti-gmo activists, because unlike usual GMO that benefits growers, or benefits customers in a non-obvious way (like golden rice), it will benefit directly customers who will be getting delicious tropical fruit which now they can taste only when traveling.

Funny enough, there was a time (and still is) in Chile where avocados were so overpriced that one guy went to the car store and used them as currency to buy one.

Interesting. I lived in Israel for a while, and there Rose farms shifted to Avocados due to cheap roses from Africa. You generally find Israeli Avocados here in Germany.<p>I wonder what happens if there is an influx of avocados from Africa.

Just an anecdote of what I remember seeing in New Zealand recently...on the northernmost tip...huge intensive avocado farms being set up....kind of sickening really but very much in tune with their economy which seems intent on ruining their environment for a a few export dollars (in this case sucking up aquifers and inviting in salination, in other cases such as dairy farming polluting the said aquifiers so they can sell dried milk to China) My point is that on a historical level you create ecological disasters so a certain middle class can survive in artificial comfort while sending stuff to other countries so their middle classes can live in a similarily artificial environment

I recommend Rotten on Netflix [1] that has an episode about Avocado farming. The whole series is super interesting anyway and explores modern day issues such as lack of water, climate change and globalisation.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.netflix.com&#x2F;gb&#x2F;title&#x2F;80146284" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.netflix.com&#x2F;gb&#x2F;title&#x2F;80146284</a>

Avocado have been a thing in South Africa for a long time already. Trees in gardens, fruit in supermarkets. Seasonal export to Europe.

I don&#x27;t understand this avocado obsession of recent years. What&#x27;s the sudden interest? &quot;Avocado on toast&quot; - what&#x27;s that about? Some sort of dig? Or people genuinely think this is exciting? I grew up with a couple of avocado trees in my garden from &#x27;80-ish, but it&#x27;s not like it was a rare earth mine. This makes as much sense to me as people getting excited about oranges; genuinely confused.

Cowspiracy. Seaspiracy, now this? What am I supposed to eat!?! Hyperbole aside, buying food that is actually sustainable and has no ethical concerns seems very difficult.

So Nigeria, a country which imports maize, rice and tomato paste thinks it should devote its land to growing avocados. SMH.<p>There are times I wonder if Western capitalists invent and promote fancy new superfoods and whatnots so they can create agricultural and ecological stress in African and South American countries.<p>Simply create excuses where they can take land away from local staples to cause poverty in those countries and protect their own farmers subsidized production of basic foods.