Avocados are about to get more expensive because the U.S. government has suspended all imports of Mexican avocados until further notice after a U.S. plant safety inspector received a threat in Mexico.
This import ban went into effect on Saturday evening after Mexico’s Agricultural Department made a statement saying how U.S. health authorities “made the decision after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone.”
Fortunately, the U.S. won’t be completely without avocados, because we do grow some ourselves. However, we definitely see a price increase on those avocados, because the U.S. would typically receive $3 billion worth of avocados from Mexico every year. This means that guac will definitely be extra as long as the import ban is in place.
Thankfully, the U.S. is not wanting this to be a permanent ban and is working on improving security conditions for the U.S inspectors so they can continue to safely work in Michoacan and resume operations. They are especially concerned about the inspector’s safety because this isn’t the first instance of U.S. inspectors being threatened in Mexico.
Back in 2019, a team of inspectors for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) were robbed at gunpoint in Ziracuaretiro, Mexico. That led to the USDA writing a letter saying, “For future situations that result in a security breach, or demonstrate an imminent physical threat to the well-being of APHIS personnel, we will immediately suspend program activities.” So, after this recent threat, they shut down imports as stated.
Hopefully the ban will be lifted soon, but I would definitely expect to see a price increase on avocados until imports start up again.
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