Associate professor Sanderine Nonhebel was in the national news regarding the high amount of water needed to grow advocados

Growers need up to 2,000 liters of water to produce one kilogram of avocados. Now that it has been very dry for a while and we have to use water sparingly, it may not be the best fruit to eat. Why does the avocado need so much water? And what are the alternatives?

The avocado is not necessarily an exception with its high water consumption, says Sanderine Nonhebel. As an associate professor at the University of Groningen, she is  specialized in food supply and the environment. "A tree needs water to grow. If you calculate how much water falls on a hectare, how many trees grow and how many avocados come out, you do indeed get numbers like this.

With nuts you are even close to 4,000 liters per hectare. pounds." "We are shifting our menu worldwide from simple potatoes and pasta to fancy products like avocado," says the senior lecturer. "Then you see that the amount of water that everyone has in their menu is simply going up. That change in consumption patterns means that we need much more water worldwide for our food supply."

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