Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday authorities are looking at a US decision announced at the weekend to temporarily suspend avocado shipments on security grounds from the western state of Michoacan.
The US embassy said the US avocado inspection programme in Michoacan was suspended pending a review of the security situation. Though exports are not formally blocked, US officials must inspect avocados being sent to the United States.
The surprise, temporary suspension was confirmed late on Saturday, Super Bowl eve, the biggest sales opportunity of the year for Mexican avocado growers — though it would not affect game-day consumption since those avocados had already been shipped.
Avocado exports are the latest victim of the drug cartel turf battles and extortion of avocado growers in the western state of Michoacan, the only state in Mexico fully authorised to export to the US market.
The decision came after one of the agency's officials, who was inspecting export shipments in the city of Uruapan, "received a threatening call on his official cell phone," said the Mexican agency that oversees agricultural exports.
The import ban came on the day that the Mexican avocado growers and packers association unveiled its Super Bowl ad for this year. Mexican exporters have taken out pricey adverts for almost a decade in a bid to associate guacamole as a Super Bowl tradition.
This year’s ad showed Julius Caesar and a rough bunch of gladiator fans outside what appears to be the Colosseum, soothing their apparently violent differences by enjoying guacamole and avocados.
The US Embassy wrote that “facilitating the export of Mexican avocados to the US and guaranteeing the safety of our agricultural inspection personnel go hand in hand".
Because the US also grows avocados, US inspectors work in Mexico to ensure exported avocados don’t carry diseases that could hurt American crops.
It was only in 1997 that the US lifted a ban on Mexican avocados that had been in place since 1914 to prevent a range of weevils, scabs and pests from entering US orchards.
Agencies contributed to this report
