The United States Embassy in Mexico on Friday announced that the U.S. is lifting a ban on inspections of Mexican avocados, clearing the way for exports to resume.

What You Need To Know

  • The U.S. Embassy in Mexico on Friday announced that the U.S. is lifting a ban on inspections of Mexican avocados, clearing the way for exports to resume

  • Inspections were halted last week after one of the U.S. inspectors received a threat “against him and his family," the U.S. Department of Agriculture said

  • Michoacán is the only Mexican state certified as pest-free and able to export avocados to the U.S. market

  • Growers in Michoacán are routinely subject to extortion by drug cartels

"I am pleased to report that today, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the US Department of Agriculture has determined to immediately resume its inspection program of avocados in Michoacán," ambassador Ken Salazar wrote in a statement. "This is possible thanks to the rapid response and cooperation of the governor of Michoacán, the federal government of Mexico and the Association of Producers and Packers Exporters of Avocado of Mexico (APEAM). I thank you for working with my security colleagues at the US Embassy to put measures in place to ensure the safety of our APHIS inspectors in the field.”

“I also thank the American and Mexican farmers and ranchers who work hard and are the backbone of the world's largest bilateral food and agriculture trade relationship," he said, adding that two-way trade between the U.S. and Mexico for food and agriculture products hit $65 billion in 2021, including $2.8 billion in Mexican avocado exports to the U.S.

"Mexico and the United States will continue to work together to strengthen the strong bilateral supply chains that promote economic growth and prosperity in both countries," Salazar concluded.

The inspections were halted last week after one of the U.S. inspectors was threatened in the western state of Michoacán, where growers are routinely subject to extortion by drug cartels.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday that the inspector had received a threat “against him and his family.”

It said the inspector had “questioned the integrity of a certain shipment, and refused to certify it based on concrete issues.”

Michoacán is the only Mexican state certified as pest-free and able to export avocados to the U.S. market. There have been frequent reports that some packers in Mexico are buying avocados from other, non-certified states, and trying to pass them off as being from Michoacán.

The week-old ban had already been taking a toll on avocado pickers in Michoacan, who stood on a roadside this week outside the city of Uruapan asking for donations after they lost their work.

There were signs that supplies may have tightened since the inspection suspension was announced last Saturday and that the damage to Mexico’s violence-plagued avocado industry may be lasting: It could prompt companies that import avocados to look beyond Mexico, which currently supplies about 92% of U.S. imports of the fruit.

Peru, Colombia and Chile already ship avocados to the United States, but in quantities that are only a tiny fraction of Mexico’s production. That may change.

Exports from Mexico were largely responsible for the huge increase in U.S. avocado consumption in recent decades because they made the fruit available year-round, most famously during the Super Bowl.

U.S. per capita consumption of avocados tripled since 2001 to 8 pounds per person in 2018.

The Mexican harvest is January through March, while U.S production runs from April to September.