US pauses avocado and mango inspections in Mexico after attack

An attack on two employees of the US agricultural department prompted a temporary suspension of safety inspections on avocados and mangoes in Mexico, potentially disrupting a $2.4bn industry between the two countries.

Ambassador Ken Salazar said in a statement that the two officials were assaulted and temporarily held by assailants while they were inspecting avocados in the Mexican state of Michoacán.

The officials, who are employees of the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (Aphis), were later released.

“To guarantee the safety of our agricultural inspection teams, APHIS has suspended the avocado and mango inspections in Michoacán until these security problems have been resolved,” Salazar said.

Because the United States also grows avocados, US inspectors work in Mexico to ensure exported avocados don’t carry diseases that could hurt US crops.

Michoacán is Mexico’s biggest exporter of avocados.

Michoacán governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla told Mexico’s Radio Fórmula that the inspectors had been stopped in a protest by residents of Aranza in western Michoacán on 14 June. He downplayed the situation, suggesting they were never at risk. He said that he got in touch with the US embassy the following day and that state forces were providing security for the state’s avocado producers and packers.

“I hope we have good news in the coming hours,” he said, referring to a potential resumption of inspections.

Mexico’s producers and packers association said in a statement on Tuesday that it was working closely with government officials from Mexico and the United States to resume avocado exports from Michoacán.

It said the incident that spurred the suspension was “unconnected to the avocado industry”.

The organization has previously warned that its members are a frequent target of violence and threats from organized crime groups seeking protection money, sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars per acre.

There have also been reports of organized crime bringing avocados grown in other states not approved for export and trying to get them through US inspections.

Bedolla told reporters Monday that Mexican authorities were in discussions with their US counterparts to quickly resolve the situation.

In February 2022, the US government suspended inspections of Mexican avocados for about a week after a US plant-safety inspector in Michoacán received a threatening message.

Later that year, Jalisco became the second Mexican state authorized to export avocados to the US.

The new pause in inspections won’t immediately block shipments of Mexican avocados to the United States, because Jalisco is now an exporter and a lot of Michoacán avocados already are in transit.

Salazar said he would travel to Michoacán next week to meet with Bedolla and the producers and packers association.