Mexico confirmed late Saturday that the US government had suspended all Mexican avocado imports after a US plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat.
Marco Ugarte / AP
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Marco Ugarte / AP
Mexico confirmed late Saturday that the US government had suspended all Mexican avocado imports after a US plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat.
Marco Ugarte / AP
MEXICO CITY – Mexico has admitted that the US government has suspended all Mexican avocado imports after a US plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat.
The unexpected suspension was confirmed late on Saturday ahead of the Super Bowl, the biggest selling opportunity of the year for Mexican avocado growers – although it won’t affect game day sales because These avocados have been shipped.
Avocado exports are the latest victim of a war between drug cartels and extortion of avocado growers in the western Mexican state of Michoacán, the only state in Mexico that is allowed to fully export to the US market.
The US government has suspended all Mexican avocado imports “until further notice” after a US plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threatening text message, the Mexican Agriculture Department said in a statement. dad.
“The US health authorities … made the decision after one of their officials, who was conducting the test in Uruapan, Michoacán, received a threatening message on his official mobile phone. ta,” the series wrote.
The import ban came on the day the Mexican avocado growers and packers association announced Super Bowl ads for this year. Mexican exporters have been running expensive advertisements for nearly a decade in an effort to associate guacamole as a Super Bowl tradition.
This year’s advert shows Julius Caesar and a group of gladiator fans roughing themselves outside of what appears to be the Colosseum, softening their glaringly violent difference by enjoying guacamole and avocado. .
The association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ban, which affects an industry with an annual export turnover of nearly $3 billion. However, the avocados for this year’s Super Bowl were exported in the weeks leading up to the event.
Because the United States also grows avocados, U.S. inspectors work in Mexico to ensure avocado exports do not carry diseases that can harm U.S. crops.
It was only in 1997 that the United States lifted a ban on Mexican avocados that had been in place since 1914 to prevent a host of weevils, scale, and pests from entering U.S. orchards.
Inspectors work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services.
This is not the first time that violence in Michoacán – where the Jalisco gang is fighting on the field against a collection of local gangs known as the United Cartels – has threatened avocados, the country’s most lucrative crop. state.
Following an earlier incident in 2019, the USDA warned of the possible consequences of attacking or threatening US inspectors.
In August 2019, a team of inspectors from the United States Department of Agriculture was “directly threatened” in Ziracuaretiro, a town located just west of Uruapan. While the agency did not specify what happened, local authorities said a gang robbed the truck the inspectors were traveling in with guns.
The USDA wrote in a letter at the time that, “For future situations that result in a security breach or indicate an imminent physical threat to the health of APHIS employees, we will immediately suspend the program’s activities.”
Many avocado growers in Michoacán say drug cartels threaten them or members of their families by kidnapping or killing them unless they pay protection, sometimes in the thousands of dollars per acre. Brother.
On September 30, 2020, a Mexican employee of APHIS was killed near the northern border city of Tijuana.
Mexican prosecutors say Edgar Flores Santos was killed by drug traffickers who may have mistook him for a police officer and a suspect was arrested. The US State Department said investigations “concluded that this unfortunate incident was caused by Mr. Flores’ presence at the wrong time, at the wrong time.”
Avocados are just the latest setback for Mexican exports
The avocado ban is just the latest threat to Mexico’s export trade stemming from the government’s inability to rein in illegal activities.
On Thursday, the Office of the United States Trade Representative filed an environmental complaint against Mexico for failing to stop illegal fishing to protect the marina of vaquita, the world’s smallest dolphin. is under serious threat.
The office said it had requested “environmental consultations” with Mexico, the first case it filed under the US-Mexico-Canada free trade pact. Consultations are the first step in the dispute resolution process under the trade agreement that came into effect in 2020. If left unresolved, it could eventually lead to trade sanctions.
The Mexican government has largely abandoned efforts to enforce a no-fishing zone around the area where some of the last species of vaquitas are thought to inhabit the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez. Nets illegally placed another fish, the totoaba, that drowned the vaquitas.
And on Monday, Mexican fishing boats in the Gulf of Mexico were “barred from entering US ports, will be denied port access and services”, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. know, in response to years of illegal poaching by Mexican ships of snapper in the United States. waters in the Gulf.
