Avocados produced in the Balearic Islands are eaten in Germany

PalmIt seems the farmers of the Balearic Islands foresaw that avocado toast would become a staple snack in many countries: avocados have been cultivated in the Sóller Valley for almost twenty years. Faced with the need to diversify crops and thanks to the increased demand for avocados, the area's farmers opted for this tropical crop. Some have even uprooted orange trees and replaced them with avocados, whose fruit sells for more than oranges. Furthermore, it ripens after being picked, making it less urgent to harvest than an orange, as it remains green on the tree. There are currently 22.25 hectares of irrigated avocado orchards in Mallorca and 8.32 hectares in Ibiza, primarily of the Hass (the most widely traded variety worldwide) and Bacon varieties. A large portion of the island's avocados are consumed in Europe, especially in Germany.

Avocados thrive in the Balearic Islands because winters are becoming increasingly warmer due to climate change, an essential condition for the growth of a crop that cannot tolerate frost. In Chile, one of the world's leading avocado producers, they are grown on farms between 1,000 and 2,500 meters above sea level, where the climate is more suitable for the plant's development. In contrast, "in the Sóller Valley, we can grow them because the climate is becoming increasingly subtropical," explains Miquel Gual, president of the San Bartolomé de Sóller Agricultural Cooperative. They cultivate them in clay soil that retains moisture. There are municipalities in the Islands where avocados cannot be grown because they are on the coast or because the soil absorbs water very quickly.

The climate of the Balearic Islands' inland municipalities favors the production of this crop. However, avocados need water to grow, a scarce resource in the Islands—towns like Esporles have implemented drinking water restrictions due to drought. "If you don't have water, you can't plant it at all," says Pere Joan, who has been cultivating avocados for 10 years. Avocados consume between 6,300 and 6,880 m³ per hectare, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment. The water allocation for citrus fruits is 6,000 m³ per hectare, a figure that producers consider "practically the same" as the amount of water consumed by avocados. However, some of them admitted to ARA Baleares that "planting a tropical tree in practically deserted islands is madness."

Where Balearic avocados end up

Approximately 75% of the avocado production from the San Bartolomé Cooperative is exported to Europe through Hecho en Sóller, a German-owned company, which ships between 7,000 and 9,000 kilograms annually (purchasing from the Cooperative and also from small producers), according to the small producers themselves. All the members of the agricultural entity collectively produce an average of 10,000 kilos per year, of which 7,500 are exported. The remainder is sold in the Cooperative's stores. According to sources at Hecho en Sóller, "90% is exported to Germany, but it is also sent to France, Belgium, Austria, and Luxembourg, among others." Sources in the primary sector explain that the avocados are sold to this company for between two and three euros per kilogram, while on the Hecho en Sóller website, the product is sold for 8.45 euros per kilogram.

The company, which is largely dedicated to sales on-lineThe company began exporting avocados in 2013, starting with approximately 2,500 kilos. Sources at Hecho en Sóller explain that, "for the past couple of years, the demand for avocados has increased thanks to the nutritional value of this product." They add that "trends have also played a role." The company has a logistics warehouse in Germany, to which it sends avocados almost every week, and there it is responsible for packing the boxes and distributing them to the end customer. They ship them from Mallorca in trucks carrying other products, including fresh fruit. "Avocados represent approximately 2% of what we export," they state. Furthermore, sources in the primary sector indicate that some Balearic exporting companies "have close ties" with multinational corporations and, therefore, use their trucks to transport the avocados. "It's a way to make the most of existing trips and also to minimize costs," they say.

Germans and residents of other European countries are demanding this product from the Balearic Islands, along with others like oranges and wine, because "they value where they come from, they love Mallorca, and they're interested in our culture," says Pere Joan, a producer and member of the Sóller Cooperative. He's aware that islanders don't consume all the local produce they'd like "because they don't have the money and they have no other choice." Joan is referring to the high cost of housing in the Balearic Islands and salaries which, he points out, "aren't the same" as in other European countries. The figures bear this out: in Germany, a citizen earns an average of €63,288, almost three times what an islander earns, at €23,126.

Otherwise, European demand for avocados continues to grow. According to data from the World Avocado Organization (WAO), the volume of avocados consumed in Europe in 2024 increased by 13.2% in the last year. Therefore, production is also growing, and Joan warns: "When everyone has avocados, the price will drop, and we'll have already done it."