Reforestation Program

Avocado farming in Mexico, particularly in Michoacán, has drawn scrutiny for contributing to deforestation, threatening native forests and biodiversity. With the high value of avocados, there is pressure to clear forest to create more land for avocado farming.

Calavo de Mexico's Fair Trade Certified avocado growers in San Lorenzo, Michoacan, have chosen a different path. In 2021, producers voted to invest community development premiums in a reforestation program. The effort has continued every year, restoring biodiversity, improving orchard health, and showing the next generation first hand how to implement environmental stewardship. In 2024, an investment of $4,500 USD of Community Development Funds was deadicated to this project. Workers, families, and community members came together to plant 1,500 pine trees on a family-owned avocado farm.

Fair Trade avocado farmer Juan Máximo Manuel said that this investment allows him to produce more avocados and achieve better fruit quality, saying that "I believe I'm doing my part for the environment, and we are setting an example for our children who will inherit the orchard one day."