The market attracts around 500,000 visitors a day. They come to buy a whole range of everyday items, in addition to fruits and vegetables. The market also employs around 100,000 people - from the people who work loading and unloading produce to wholesalers.
The Abasto’s problems mirror those of Mexican society at large: While some have made a considerable fortune from the vegetable trade, others live as day labourers, on the fringes of the market in extreme poverty, under plastic tarpaulins. Even those who’ve secured a spot on the sales floor as ‘hawkers’ lead a precarious existence. Extortion, corruption and violence are the order of the day there, too -- despite a massive police presence, and pledges of reform made by the market administration.
Cartels like the ‘Jalisco Nueva Generación’ have long since found ways to get rich from the trade in things like avocados and limes -- staple foods for the Mexican population.
In Michoacán, the main avocado-growing region, the cartels extort ever higher taxes from the farmers - and they’re not afraid to use violence to get what they want. While citizen militias are standing up to the criminal gangs, the increasing price pressure is having a growing impact on the ‘Central de Abasto’ and its customers.
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