The US government has suspended all imports of Mexican avocados after a US plant safety inspector in Mexico was threatened. This temporary suspension was confirmed late Saturday on the eve of the Super Bowl, which is of course the biggest sales opportunity of the year for Mexican avocado growers. The measure did not affect game-day consumption, as those avocados had already been shipped.
Avocado exports are the latest casualty of drug cartel turf wars and extortion of avocado growers in Michoacan, Mexico's only completely permitted state for exporting to the US market.
Mexico’s Agriculture Department said in a statement: “US 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.”
The ban came on the day that the Mexican avocado growers and packers association unveiled its Super Bowl ad for this year; exporters have taken out these costly ads for almost a decade, hoping to consolidate guacamole as a Super Bowl tradition.
The association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ban, which hits an industry with almost $3 billion in annual exports. However, avocados for this year's Super Bowl had already been exported in the weeks prior to the event.
It is not the first time that the violence in Michoacan has threatened avocados, the state's most lucrative crop.
Source: abcnews.go.com