Violent and Vibrant: Mexico's Avocado Boom and Organized Crime

Publisher: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Author(s): Romain Le-Cour-Grandmaison and Paul Frissard Martinez

Date: 2024

Topics: Conflict Causes, Governance, Land, Renewable Resources

Countries: Mexico, United States

The growing consumption of avocados globally has increased interest in the social, economic and environmental impacts of avocado production in Mexico, and in the political-criminal networks that have expanded around the industry. However, most studies tend to present organized crime and the use of violence as barriers to the market economy, arguing that criminal actors are only an obstacle to legal economic accumulation and trade. These assumptions have led to narratives of ‘state vs drug cartels’ and ‘avocado producers vs drug cartels’ in Michoacán, the Mexican state that has become the world’s leading producer of the fruit. These narratives ignore the complex history of agro-industrial development, state interventions and the growth of criminal markets in the region.