By Nelson Larrea, Senior Executive of the Private Sector Programming Directorate
It is widely acknowledged that the avocado or palta has its origins in Mexico and Central America, where records dating back to 7000 to 8000 years BC. The plant would have spread towards the south, where there is archaeological evidence of its food and ritual use in cultures prior to the Incas (from approximately 1500 BC, according to Velásquez, A., 2025).
Even its diffusion and greater planting in large areas of its Empire was due to the conquest by the Inca Tupac Yupanqui over the ‘Palta Culture’ settled in present-day Loja, Ecuador, where its cultivation was widespread – and to which we owe the most common name for the fruit in South America.
Much further north, in California, postman and farmer Rudolph Hass, by chance, created the avocado variety that bears his surname in the 1920s, combining Mexican genes, which give it early maturity, with Guatemalan genes, which provide a hard shell that better withstands transport and trade; it is currently the variety with the highest global demand. Today, just for the day of the NFL’s final game, the US Super Bowl , more than 130,000 tons of avocado are imported from Mexico for the preparation of guacamole sauce. This country exports more than USD 2.8 billion of this fruit annually to the world, followed by Peru with just over USD 1.2 billion.
There are many more interesting travel stories, such as that of coffee, of Ethiopian origin, initially traded exclusively by the Arabs (hence the category of mild Arabica coffees), then expanded through trade through the Dutch. Brazil is currently the main producer/exporter, followed by Colombia – with recognized quality – and Vietnam, which alternate in second place. Let’s not forget that the highest price obtained for cup quality in history goes to the Geisha from Panama. The Andean potato, which saved Europe from starvation in the 17th century and now has some 7,000 germplasm accessions preserved at the International Potato Center, with an estimated 4,000 Andean potatoes being edible.
And teosinte, which originated in Mexico and Central America and became the corn we know today thanks to its domestication by the Aztecs and other indigenous peoples of that region, contributes to global food security, with an international trade volume of more than 190 billion tons annually.
Agriculture as we know it today brings to our tables the results of thousands of these “genealogies” and journeys from what were once wild plants and animals that, thanks to artificial human selection after the last Ice Age, great migrations, and trade, allow us to feed the world, but also offer great opportunities for biobusinesses. The need to adapt crops and breeding to agroclimatic conditions, make them more productive, resistant to pests and diseases, attractive to consumers in shape, size, color, and flavor, etc., has forced farmers to take on the patient task of experimenting and awaiting the results in their fields.
Over the centuries, scientists and technologists from a wide variety of fields have joined this increasingly complex and ambitious work, from genetics to irrigation, fertilization, mechanization, and more recently, robotics, digitalization, and biotechnology. NASA even generates much of the satellite data used by American producers to make decisions, and in many cases, it directly feeds into their already automated precision agriculture systems for irrigation, fertilization, and so on.
Under our current circumstances, the climate change scenario and associated sustainability challenges, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the sector, translate into regulations and standards for production and trade that add to the challenge of feeding a growing global population. All of this adds demands to the sector, which are being addressed through public and private innovation initiatives. However, as highlighted by CAF’s Agricultural Prosperity Strategy: ”
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the level of investment in infrastructure, science, and technology remains insufficient. Regarding R&D, the region represents only 2 percent of global investment, well below North America and Europe (51%) or Asia (39%) (UNESCO, 2021). Most countries, except Brazil, do not exceed 1 percent of GDP in investment in science and technolog.”
In response, CAF proposes in the aforementioned sector strategy to support these efforts in its member countries, taking into account that: ” the region’s own financing, training and equitable access to new technologies (such as mechanization and adapted robotics, digital innovation, including the development and use of artificial intelligence in production processes and agricultural services) will be key to the sustainable growth of the sector.”
Finally, to materialize these innovations in the field, training and extension services must also be adequately deployed, and the productive sector must have access to financing to adopt these changes. In this regard, CAF already has several projects in its portfolio, and others in the pipeline, that seek to facilitate this technology transfer and investment in several countries in the region.
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