---
title: Avocados Bound for US Shelves Now Clear a 2018 Deforestation Cutoff, Well Ahead of Mexico's 2030 Deadline
description: About 80 Mexican packinghouses screen every orchard they buy from against satellite imagery, covering more than 90 percent of avocado exports to the US.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
updated: 2026-07-31T07:20:39.609Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/mexican-avocados-2018-deforestation-cutoff-certification
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/mexican-avocado-orchard-forest-edge-73299.webp
categories: Supply Chains
content_type: News
region: Mexico
publication: Sovereign Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

An avocado grown in Mexico and sold in a US supermarket now carries a condition that did not exist two years ago: the orchard it came from must not have been cleared of forest since 2018, and must not be carrying unresolved environmental fines or administrative orders. The check is run at the packinghouse, against satellite imagery, before the fruit is bought. Enough of the trade has adopted it that the commercial standard is running years ahead of the Mexican government's own timetable, which sets 2030 as the date for deforestation-free exports.

The volumes make the shift worth noticing. Imported avocados account for 90 percent of US supply, against 40 percent in the early 2000s, and the United States imported an annual average of 2.25 billion pounds from Mexico between 2019 and 2021, up from 55 million pounds two decades earlier, according to figures from the US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. Mexico supplied 88 percent of all US avocado shipments over that period.

## One Chain Made Certification a Condition of Purchase

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