Portugal’s avocados: Green gold or ecological nightmare? | DW Documentary

The avocado is a new superfood and its cultivation has been increasing worldwide, including in southern Portugal. But avocado plantations suck up the water in the already drought-stricken country. Local residents and small farmers are fighting back. Matthew Ambrose had imagined his ninth summer running a vacation quinta in Portugal quite differently. For decades, Matthew ran bars and discos in the UK. Now he wants to live a quieter life in a small guesthouse surrounded by a green garden, with his donkey, a pony and two dogs. But he fears that his only well will run dry and his land will become barren. Noisy excavators surround his property. A large Portuguese fruit-growing company is tearing up cork oak and prickly pear trees and laying water pipes to create a 50-hectare avocado plantation. Three deep wells have already been sunk - even though, as Matthew points out, locals are strictly forbidden from drilling new wells after many years of low rainfall and forest fires. But the company got permits from the P