US suspends Mexican avocado imports

As of Saturday 12 February, the United States has officially suspended all imports of avocados from Mexico until further notice.

 

APHIS-USDA, the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, has decided to suspend avocado inspection activities in Michoacán until further notice. This decision was taken after one of its agents, who was carrying out inspection work in Uruapan, Michoacán, received a threatening call on his official mobile phone.

 

According to the procedure for exporting Hass avocados from Mexico to the US, US health agency personnel inspect the avocado to be exported and, once authorized, the avocado is moved to be packed.

 

The call that threatened the US official appears to be another incident in the turf battle between drug cartels and the extortion of producers. Many Michoacan avocado growers claim that drug gangs threaten them or their family members with kidnapping or death if they do not pay protection money.

 

The suspension was confirmed on Saturday 12 February, on the eve of the Super Bowl, the biggest sales opportunity of the year for Mexican lawyers. The consumption of Mexican avocados on game day was not affected since the avocados had already been shipped. In the last 6 weeks, Michoacan producers have exported more than 135,000 tons of avocados to the US.

 

 

 

 

source : npr.org, gob.mx