USDA suspends avocado inspections in Mexico for safety reasons

Safety concerns about temporary workers have prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture to suspend its inspections of avocados and mangoes imported from Mexico “until further notice,” the Agriculture Department said on Monday.

Products already cleared for export will not be affected by the decision. However, avocado shipments in the US, which largely come from the Mexican state of Michoacán, could ultimately be affected if inspections are not resumed.

The inspections “remain suspended until the safety situation is reviewed and protocols and safeguards are in place,” a USDA spokesperson said in an email.

The agency did not say what caused the security concerns, but Mexican news outlets recently reported that two USDA inspectors were illegally detained at a checkpoint run by community members. In Michoacán, which stretches from the mountains west of Mexico City to the Pacific Ocean, some indigenous communities have set up security patrols to defend themselves against criminal groups.

The US Embassy in Mexico confirmed on Monday that the inspectors were no longer being held.

“The suspension of avocado exports from Michoacán was due to an incident that had nothing to do with the avocado industry,” Julio Sahagún Calderón, president of the Mexican Association of Avocado Producers and Packers APEAM, said in a statement. He added that the group was working “intensively” with Mexican and U.S. authorities to resume inspection of avocados from Michoacán.

“Without inspections, there can be no exports,” said Lupita Mirón, a spokeswoman for APEAM.

This is not the first time that US security inspectors have faced security threats in Michoacán, where residents have become embroiled in a brutal turf war between drug cartels.

In 2022, the United States decided to temporarily block all avocado imports from Mexico after verbal threats were made against a safety inspector. The ban was lifted days later after Mexico issued additional safety measures for USDA inspectors.

In addition to their battles over the drug trade, the cartels are also trying to force their way into the legal economy, particularly the lucrative avocado industry, whose success is fueled by the U.S.’s insatiable appetite for the creamy fruit.

Orchards that produce avocados for export to the United States, as well as the packing houses that process them, must be certified by both Mexican authorities and USDA inspectors.

The agency is committed to resuming inspections “as soon as possible,” the USDA spokesperson said. He said that “avocados and mangos in transit are not affected by the suspension because they have already gone through the inspection process.”

The popularity and profitability of avocados has raised environmental concerns in Mexico. Avocado plantations have sprung up in protected areas that should be off-limits to farmers and loggers, leading to the loss of forests and the depletion of aquifers.

A report released last year by Climate Rights International, a nonprofit that documents the human rights impacts of climate change, found that the United States and Mexico had certified more than 50,000 avocado orchards in Michoacán for export by March 2023.