“Avocados kilometer zero,” reads a sign in the fruit section of a well-known Catalan supermarket chain. At 1.59 euros per unit, a priori it sounds a bit optimistic to call those from Malaga that, we thought before reading the rest of the information where they claim that their origin is Catalonia.
Catalan avocados? Indeed, from the Terres de l'Ebre, each of the pieces indicates. Although it is something quite unknown, in reality Tarragona has also joined the avocado trend for a few years now. With the consequent doubts that this crop always generates about its sustainability, of course.
The La Calafa project in Alcanar was one of the pioneers in the cultivation of avocados in Tarragona. A family farm run organically in which, according to Agustí Grau, his father already had avocados planted before 2012. It was that year when, together with his wife, Meritxel Vidal, they took over and began to produce and sell them for the zone.
“As orange and mandarin trees died, some from 1926, I tried different subtropical trees. And the one that survived and produced the best was the avocado,” Grau recalls regarding his father's original idea. Although it may be surprising that the avocado grows well in this area, he assures that it is not that rare "We have a subtropical climate and high humidity. In the soil we have, although it is not ideal, they grow quite well. It is part of the group of subtropical crops that have been attempted in the Levant (avocado, persimmon, etc.)", he explains.
Roger Catà is one of the greatest experts in avocado cultivation in this region. This agronomist works for Alvo.cat, which has been growing avocados in the province of Tarragona since 2018, and also has a mill where avocado oil is produced.
On their website Alvo.cat they sell these “kilometer zero” avocados directly to the entire country. Furthermore, at the end of the season, the smaller or less beautiful ones are used to make oil in the company's own Mas Montseny mill. “Avocado oil is not well known, but it is just as healthy as extra virgin olive oil, and it also has many beneficial properties for the skin, hence its cosmetic use,” defends Catà.
“We were looking for alternatives to traditional crops that were decreasing in production or due to low prices, as is the case of hazelnuts in Camp de Tarragona or citrus fruits in the south of Catalonia,” says Roger Catà. He traveled to the Canary Islands, Malaga and Valencia to visit fields, speak with avocado producers and study the crop to preselect the varieties that best adapt to the clay and calcareous terrain of the region.
In Valencia it has been more established for years and there are already those who speak of a gradual displacement of citrus fruits in favor of this much more profitable fruit. And that its cultivation is moving northward should not be surprising and many link it to climate change, although its adaptation is not so simple.
In addition to this plantation in El Morell, in total there are about 15 more farms throughout Catalonia that are beginning to plant on a small scale, indicates Catà. He advises them, because adapting a subtropical plant to the Mediterranean requires taking into account specific frosts and the more compact type of terrain that, as he explains, retains water and makes the work different from other areas.
The fact is that the unstoppable demand for avocado is evident. Also, they pay much better than other products in the area. “The high profitability is true, they pay very well, they are easy to manage and they are very easy to sell,” says Grau. For a few years it was quite good, he admits, and they sold from Vinaròs to Cardedeu, to individual clients, associations, consumer groups and organic stores.
Despite this, in La Calafa they stopped selling them years ago. “Avocados have lost their productivity and we want to rethink their cultivation in particular.” In addition, the pregnancy of his partner and the impossibility of maintaining the crop alone also had to do with this decision. “It is a small farm, almost a garden, and we have never been able to make a living from it, so we each had our job and we continued with them,” he explains.
Better to eat avocados produced nearby than ones brought from the other side of the world. In addition to the carbon footprint of their transportation, there is also the quality, since those that arrive from afar are picked green and matured during the sea journey of more than 30 days. “They will never be able to compete with a Km 0 avocado produced in Catalonia, it has more flavor because we harvest it at its peak, we wait until it has all the good fat to send it to your home,” they defend from Alvo.cat.
Something that makes a lot of logic, but that doesn't convince everyone. Ferran García, Food Justice researcher, invites us to do a broader reading of the topic and questions the idea of kilometer zero as it is often understood. “It is a concept that not only refers to kilometer proximity, but also from an environmental, ecosystem and cultural point of view. It is the reason for the existence of local food systems,” he explains.
This NGO recently published a report that is very critical of tropical crops in the Axarquía region of Malaga, focusing especially on mangoes and recalling that this Andalusian region suffers from “unbearable water stress” due to crops such as this booming fruit or avocados. for more than a decade.
“A polar bear in the Barcelona zoo is also local, but it doesn't make sense,” he points out, while remembering that, although distance plays a role, it is almost the least important factor in this issue.
“It is true that it also has an influence, but of the environmental and social impacts that avocado generates, the least important part is the journey. It has to do with production models, but not with kilometers. There is a difference, but it is not important that it comes from South Africa, Malaga or Maresme,” defends García while he claims local alternatives, just as healthy, even if they are not as fashionable.
Water consumption is another of the recurring topics when talking about avocados, and the studies on the matter do not invite us to be very optimistic. The drought of recent years, especially serious in Catalonia, has aggravated the situation. Roger Catà, however, qualifies this information regarding avocados. "It is a plant that is demanding in nutrition, but not in water as is thought; to produce a kilo of avocado we save three times more than to produce one kilo of hazelnut, for example."
“There is an artificially generated demand and, as the controversy arises that they come from the other part of the world, then zero kilometer initiatives immediately appear to supposedly solve the impact problems,” they defend from Food Justice.
The vision of La Calanda, which for years produced organic avocados in Tarragona, is also very interesting. The consumption of water is evident, they acknowledge, but his small farm allowed them to experiment with the issue. “We try to water them less than they ask, to make them equal to the mandarin trees and not unbalance the farm. And the same with fertilizer. And yes, it can be produced, but less,” he explains.
“Farmers, people for whom the countryside is their culture and family, know that such a drastic change in the water consumed does not fit. So I assume that it will not be a majority crop. Something that, in my opinion, is a source of pride and responsibility.”
