Borderlands Mexico: US resumes avocado inspections interrupted by protests

The United States will gradually resume avocado and mango inspections in the Mexican state of Michoacan, a week after inspections and shipments were suspended when two U.S. employees were reportedly detained by protesters.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors “will gradually begin to return to the packing plants following recent aggression against them,” U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said in a statement on Friday to The Associated Press.

“However, it is still necessary to advance in guaranteeing their security before reaching full operations. In fact, more work still needs to be done so that the inspectors are safe and can resume inspections and thereby eliminate the impediments to the trade of avocado and mango to the United States from Michoacan.”

It ends a suspension of avocado inspections and imports that began June 14 after the USDA inspectors carrying out field work were stopped and held temporarily by protestors, Mexican authorities said.

Authorities said the suspension of avocado inspections was costing the industry about $7 million a day in lost cross-border shipments, according to La Jornada. 

Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said the U.S. inspectors had been stopped by protestors in the municipality of Uruapan, where U.S.-based businesses grow avocados in the region. USDA inspectors work in Mexico to ensure exported avocados are disease-free.

Bedolla said the U.S. inspectors were released a few hours after being detained and that the protests were not related to criminal activity.

Several media outlets across Mexico reported that the protesters who halted and detained the USDA inspectors were members of local civil guard police, who were reportedly demonstrating against poor working conditions, low salaries, lack of salary bonuses and the state’s high crime rate.

Mexico’s avocado exports totaled more than $2.84 billion in 2023, according to Statista. The U.S. is Mexico’s top export market, accounting for 81% of total exports, valued at $2.7 billion last year.

Michoacan is one of only two Mexican states authorized to produce and export avocados. It grows more than 80% of the avocados shipped from the country. The Mexican state of Jalisco began exporting avocados in 2022.

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