U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said: Announced Inspection of avocados and mangoes by U.S. Department of Agriculture officials in the western Mexican state of Michoacan will resume “gradually,” the department said on Friday.
It wasn’t immediately clear when that would happen, and Salazar seemed to suggest the safety concerns that sparked last weekend’s suspension had not yet been fully resolved.
“Further safety measures must be taken before full-scale operations begin,” he said in a statement, referring to USDA inspectors.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico said Tuesday that two officers from its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service were assaulted and detained while traveling in Michoacan state, where they were inspecting and packing avocado farms, a necessary step to ensure the fruit is pest-free before being exported to the United States.
The embassy confirmed that the staff were later released, but the incident meant the US would suspend inspections of avocados and mangoes imported from Mexico “until the security situation is reviewed and procedures and safeguards are implemented,” a USDA spokesman told The New York Times.
Earlier this week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador promised He added that agreements were already being sought to improve safety measures for inspectors.
But he complained that the US is sometimes quick to take “unilateral steps” like the recent ceasefire. “We are trying to persuade the US to act differently, but it is taking time,” he said.
The move has raised concerns among growers in Michoacán, which accounts for 73 percent of Mexico’s avocado production. Jalisco, the other Mexican state allowed to ship avocados, accounts for 12 percent of production. Combined, the two states account for 12 percent of production. supply They account for about 90 percent of all U.S. avocado imports.
“It remains to be seen what measures authorities will take to prevent a recurrence,” Juan Carlos Anaya, executive director of a Mexican agricultural consulting group, said in a radio interview this week.
This is not the first time the United States has raised safety concerns about Agriculture Department inspectors in Michoacan, where criminal gangs have sought to infiltrate the state’s lucrative avocado export market.
As the cartels rise, satisfying growing U.S. demand for avocados has come at a high cost: intimidation, kidnappings, murder and widespread deforestation have devastated the state of Michoacan.
In 2022, the United States temporarily banned the import of avocados from Mexico after a factory safety inspector in the state of Michoacan received threatening messages. The ban was lifted soon after and exports resumed.
Michoacan Governor Alfredo Ramirez Bedoja Announced USDA inspectors will begin returning to work in stages on Friday.
“We will continue to comply with the rules and ensure a safe environment to work in,” he said. “We hope to receive positive news soon and to resume exports of avocados and mangoes that communities and families in Michoacan rely on.”
