LONDON / AGILITYPR.NEWS / November 14, 2021 / This move to remove or substitute avocado from restaurant menus, outlined in The Guardian, revives a campaign of misinformation about the avocado, but one kilo of avocado requires only an average of 600 litres of water to produce.

Innovations in the avocado growing process have made it possible to minimise water use to levels well below the global average for other products.

London, 15th of November 2021 - A handful of London chefs have decided to take avocados off their menus because of its supposed water footprint and one chef has even proposed substituting it with an imitation guacamole that is, paradoxically, made with fava beans - a product that requires more than 5,000 litres of water to produce a single kilo, or almost 10 times the water needed to produce one kilo of avocados.

This group of chef’s hypocrisy does not stop with the fake guacamole, as they also keep dozens of ingredients on their menus with a much larger water footprint than the avocado, including meat which requires up to 14,000 litres to produce one kilo and livestock production being the main agricultural source of greenhouse gases in the world. Avocados, on the other hand, are grown on trees which are considered the lungs of the earth because they convert carbon dioxide into clean oxygen.

“It is comical to see how these few London-based chefs propose to eliminate or substitute avocados with other products as is the case with the "fake" guacamole made with a product that requires the equivalent of almost 10 times more litres of water to produce a kilo of avocados. It is equally difficult to understand how they can talk negatively about a product with such a small water footprint when their menus are full of products that require thousands and thousands of litres of water to produce a single kilo. If they really wanted to be allies of the environment they would stop serving meat and dairy products and only serve products with a water footprint like avocados or less.” says Xavier Equihua, the CEO of the World Avocado Organization.

Litre for litre, the water used to produce one kilo of avocados results in one of the highest nutritional returns for humans. Similarly, all avocados sold in Europe and the UK are GLOBALGAP certified. GLOBALGAP is an initiative that sets standards for safe, socially and environmentally responsible agricultural production practices.

In recent years, the global avocado industry has managed to produce avocados with less water using an average of 600 litres of water, while for popular foods such as rice, pork or chicken, this amount rises to 4,000, 4,300 and 6,000 litres respectively, according to studies such as those of the IME (https://bit.ly/2o8cdn3) and the Water Footprint Network (https://cutt.ly/XeTCHV7).

For a short video about the avocado's water footprint, please click here.

About WAO

WAO is a non-profit organization founded in 2016 that represents the main producers, exporters and importers of avocados around the world. WAO promotes the consumption of avocados based on their nutritional value and recognised health benefits.

You can follow WAO on these platforms:

Facebook: @avocadofruitoflife

Instagram: @avocadofruitoflife

Website: https://avocadofruitoflife.com/en/