In 2021, avocados ranked high in per capita consumption growth among fruits. Avocado consumption in the US was about four pounds per person in 2010; and in 2018 it more than doubled to nearly 8.5 pounds. By 2026, avocado consumption could exceed 11 pounds per person per year. In Europe, France consumed the most avocados in 2020 at around 144,000 tons. Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom consumed more than 100,000 tons of the avocado in the same year.
However, the carbon footprint to export avocados to the US and Europe is twice that of a banana. Establishing dedicated plantations to satisfy export demand causes deforestation, including the burning of trees and destruction of natural habitats. This puts the in-demand fruits, primarily grown in South and Central America, are among the least environmentally-friendly crops.
In countries with semi-arid climates like Spain and Israel, drip irrigation, fertigation and frost protection are changing where and how avocados are grown and exported to Europe. Companies like Netafim are working to onboard new avocado regions in Turkey, Morocco, Corsica and Sicily to produce the high margin crop through continuous irrigation and fertigation and improve the size and weight of the fruit and reduce the use of chemicals required to grow the crop.
According to Danny Stern, Senior Agronomist for Tropical and Subtropical Orchards Agronomy Department at Netafim, continuous irrigation creates at least double the yield for avocados, even with no rainfall for 11 months of the year.
Source: forbes.com