Consumers in Mexico's key avocado-growing state of Michoacán are showing a greater interest in buying their own organically produced products, website Cambiodemichoacan.com.mx reported.

Tacámbaro municipality grower José Luis López Alvarado told the website that trade in organic avocados had grown 20% in the region, thanks to awareness about the technique's health benefits in the community.

Despite this success, López Alvarado noted it had been difficult for organic growers to enter the market with prices much higher than for conventional avocados.

"The organic product in department stores or sales to the final consumer is double, and so a lot of people don't have access to buy these types of products, but now the fashion is to look good and be thin, and healthy eating is a part of that," he was quoted as saying.

Purépero grower Humberto Naranjo Pulido told the publication that organic production raised costs by 10-15%.

"But direct trade is only 10-20% more expensive, depending on the season," Naranjo Pulido was quoted as saying, adding that around a quarter of the state's 50,000 avocado growers produced the fruit organically.

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