Avocado Exports Restart After US Cartel Security Alert
Avocado Exports Restart After US Cartel Security Alert
The News
The US government has fully resumed operations in Michoacán, Mexico's main avocado-producing state, lifting a security alert that had halted avocado shipments to American grocery shelves for eight days.
Orchards, packing plants and US Department of Agriculture inspectors were back at work by the weekend, the Associated Press reported from Santa Ana Zirosto.
Michoacán is a state where four cartels designated as terrorist organizations by the Trump administration operate, and where growers say extortion is treated as a cost of doing business.
Timeline
Mexico did not export avocados to the US for roughly eight decades after a worm was found in an avocado pit; the US ban was lifted in 1997 as domestic production could no longer meet demand, avocado grower and packer Valentín Rodríguez told the AP.
US avocado inspections in Michoacán were temporarily suspended after security incidents involving inspectors, according to Reuters.
The US halted operations in the state citing security risks. Workers were told to stop cutting with no explanation; a packing plant in Tacámbaro was ordered sealed and quarantined in the early hours. Roughly 200,000 people employed by the state's avocado industry were left in limbo.
A Michoacán government official told Reuters authorities believed the alert may have been triggered by violence following the arrest of alleged cartel leader Alfonso Fernandez Magallon, and that there were unconfirmed reports a USDA inspector may have been threatened.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico was working with the US Embassy to guarantee inspectors' safety and would deploy more than 1,500 soldiers and National Guard personnel to Michoacán. The US Embassy then announced a partial restart in parts of the state's "avocado belt."
The US said it would fully resume activities throughout Michoacán.
Pickers returned to the trees, packing plants ran at full speed and USDA inspectors were back certifying fruit as pest-free before it crosses the border.
Reactions
Picker Francisco Isidro, 39, was back in an orchard the morning after the alert was lifted, throwing a rope over a 20-foot tree and filling a box of US-bound avocados in 15 minutes. "Thank God ... and now we're getting paid!" he shouted after several days without work, the AP reported.
US Ambassador Ron Johnson credited the Mexican government. "I recognize the Government of Mexico, particularly its Security Cabinet, for the actions and close coordination that made this full resumption possible efficiently," he said in a Thursday statement. "We will continue to monitor security conditions and adjust our operations as appropriate."
Rodríguez, a longtime figure in the industry, was blunt about who holds the leverage: "If the United States says that it is suspending technical services for security reasons, it's impossible to export. If it's for a plant health, it's the same. We are at the mercy of whatever the U.S. market and government decide to do with the industry."
He was also skeptical the quiet would hold. "We'll be safe for a while, we'll see what happens next," he said.
What's Next
The US Embassy says it will keep monitoring security conditions and adjust operations as appropriate — meaning another incident involving an inspector can shut the pipeline again, as it did in 2022, 2024 and this month.
Mexican authorities have not said what specific threat triggered the August alert. The extra soldiers and National Guard personnel Sheinbaum ordered into Michoacán are the test of whether the calm lasts.
The pressure point on the American side arrives at the start of the year, when guacamole demand spikes ahead of the Super Bowl and thousands of tons a day move north.
More
More than 80% of Mexican avocados are sold to the United States. In March alone, Mexico shipped nearly 4,800 tons of avocados a day across the border.
Extortion is baked into the price. One Michoacán producer told the AP he pays 1 peso per kilo exported and ships about 90 metric tons a day — more than $5,000 a day handed to criminal groups. Trucks loaded with avocados are robbed on roads in western Michoacán, and farmworkers have been stopped and beaten by armed men near the Jalisco border, according to a worker who spoke anonymously for fear of retaliation.
US inspectors now spend less time in the isolated hill orchards where armed groups operate freely, concentrating instead on packing plants. An official familiar with their work told the AP that threats have previously arisen after inspectors detected pests and were pressured not to report them. Loaded trucks travel to packing plants in convoys escorted by police patrols.
Sources: Associated Press, Reuters (via NTD), The Independent, New York Post.
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