Exports of avocado from Michoacán to the US resume on Monday

Ernesto Martínez Elorriaga, correspondent; Fabiola Martínez, Rubén Villalpando, Arturo Sánchez Jiménez and Jared Laureles

Newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, February 19, 2022, p. 5

Avocado exports from Michoacán to the United States will resume on Monday, February 21, after a week of suspension and as a result of the agreements reached between Mexican and United States authorities.

This was announced yesterday by various instances of both countries, a week after Washington announced the suspension of the entry of that Mexican fruit into its territory, as a result of threats from organized crime against one of its inspectors who work in the orchards of Uruapan .

Avocado is the third agro-industrial product that Mexico sells the most to the world, after beer and tequila. US importers buy almost 90 percent of that country’s consumption from Mexicans, a trade valued at 3 billion dollars a year, of which 2,800 are with Mexico.

The impact is such that in a week of suspension, there are 5 thousand tons of avocado waiting to be exported, according to Michoacan producers.

Michocán is the world’s largest producer of avocado and allocates 85 percent of its cultivation to the United States. It is also one of the entities hardest hit by the violence of organized crime, in whose sights are, among others, the producers of this fruit, who suffer robbery, aggression and extortion.

The Association of Producers and Exporting Packers of Avocado of Mexico (Apeam) – made up of 30,000 producers and 74 export packers – reported that shipments to the United States will resume on Monday 21, after the agreements obtained on February 16, in which US authorities, officials from the federal and state governments, as well as the Apeam, participated.

After a few days of intense work together with Mexican and United States authorities, as well as with the state government, the necessary measures were agreed to restore the plan to export Mexican avocados to the neighboring country with immediate effect.he indicated in a statement.

Among the agreed measures is the security protocol presented by the state government, which includes the creation of the investigation and security unit in the Apeam, a radio communication network and the establishment of a truck monitoring and information analysis center. , as well as the elaboration of a mapping in the 59 municipalities of the avocado zone. The objective is to guarantee the free transit, harvest, packaging and export of the product.

The governor of Michoacán, Alfredo Ramírez, pointed out that the reactivation of avocado exports to the United States is very important because it is an activity that generates more than 300,000 jobs. According to data from the local government, in the state there are 30,000 producers and 150,000 hectares certified for the production of the fruit, which capture some 2.8 billion dollars.

Before knowing the decision of the United States to lift the ban on the entry of Mexican avocados, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had anticipated the immediate possibility of an agreement regarding the fruit.

There is already a proposal so that avocado exports can be regularized, normalized, and a resolution must be issued today. We hope that it will be positive and that starting next week the export process can be resumed on a daily basis.he said at the morning press conference in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

Ken Salazar acknowledges government response

The United States ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, affirmed that the resumption of the revisions carried out by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, dependent on the Department of Agriculture of that nation, was possible thanks to the rapid response and cooperation of the governor of Michoacán, the federal government of Mexico and the Association of Producers and Packers Exporters of Avocado of Mexico.

He thanked the Mexican authorities for working with my security colleagues at the US embassy to establish measures to ensure the safety of our inspectors.

The diplomat stressed that American and Mexican farmers and ranchers work hard and are the backbone of the largest bilateral agricultural and food trade relationship in the world.

For his part, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, affirmed that this measure realizes the close and cordial relationship between Mexico and the United States and extended his recognition to Ken Salazar and the government of Joe Biden.