A U.S. decision to suspend avocado shipments from a violent Mexican state has been acknowledged by Mexico on Sunday. The surprise suspension was confirmed late Saturday evening by U.S. officials, on the eve of the Super Bowl, the biggest sales opportunity of the year for Mexican avocado growers.
“U.S. health authorities, made the decision after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone,” the department wrote.
The U.S. government suspended all imports of Mexican avocados “until further notice” Mexico’s Agriculture Department said in a statement. The action came after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat. This has been a really challenging week for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose approval rating suffered an unusual dip in a tracking poll published on Sunday.
On Friday, the Mexican president devoted much of his daily news conference to criticizing journalist Carlo Loret de Mola, even naming his salary, just a day after authorities had confirmed the fifth killing of a media professional in Mexico this year.
Roy Campos, head of polling firm Consulta Mitofsky said, “Obrador has gone from being against the system to ‘I am the system.'” The track poll this weekend showed support for Obrador takings its biggest daily drop in nearly two years on Sunday.
Avocado exports are the latest victim of the drug cartel turf battles and extortion of avocado growers in the western state of Michoacan, the only state in Mexico fully authorized to export to the U.S. market.
The import ban came on the day that the Mexican avocado growers and packers’ association unveiled its Super Bowl ad for this year. Mexican exporters have taken out the pricy ads for almost a decade in a bid to associate guacamole as a Super Bowl tradition.
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“A U.S. decision to suspend avocado shipments from a violent Mexican state has been acknowledged by Mexico on Sunday. The surprise suspension was confirmed late Saturday evening by U.S. officials, on the eve of the Super Bowl, the biggest sales opportunity of the year for Mexican avocado growers.
“U.S. health authorities, made the decision after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone,” the department wrote.
The U.S. government suspended all imports of Mexican avocados “until further notice” Mexico’s Agriculture Department said in a statement.”
The FIRST paragraph in this article states that “avocado shipments from a violent Mexican state” have been suspended while the THIRD paragraph states “ALL imports” of Mexican avocados will be suspended “until further notice”.
Well, which is it, ALL avocados or just those from Uruapan, Michoacan?
Since the USA imports 80% of all the avocados grown in Mexico, an “ALL imports” action will greatly impact thousands of Mexican farmers and their families who have relied for years on the USA to buy their product (at a U.S. dollar level). For decades these farmers have raised the necessary amount of trees according to their export needs…80% going to the USA. But now crops that WOULD have been sold will now rot and provide NO income.
All because an inspector received a threat on his phone??? What, is this the very first time in all the decades our country has been importing products from Mexico that an inspector has received a threat? Just about ALL of Mexico is dominated by one cartel or another! And no matter where you go in Mexico, even the POLICE are crooked!
And the government’s answer to this is NOT TO INCREASE SECURITY OR CHANGE OUT THE INSPECTOR BUT, INSTEAD, BAN 80% OF ALL AVOCADOS COMING INTO OUR COUNTRY??!!
Also, this ban comes shortly after our government tells us of a famine possibility coming soon ‘to a neighborhood near you’. AND after stopping the production of fertilizer, and paying OUR farmers to STOP planting certain crops such as corn…stop raising beef.. and telling us that all supermarket chicken, turkey, and the like will soon be greatly reduced in our stores due to another bird disease “suddenly” hitting that part of our food industry.
Coincidence? IMO, it’s very doubtful.
Seems like a famine…a MANMADE famine…will soon be coming our way.
Another thing to consider: Since Michoacan is also one of the major TOMATO-producing states in that country along with Sinaloa and Baja California, will the banning of tomatoes be next if any other “official” receives threats via his/her phone? Or how about ORANGES, LEMONS, AND LIMES since most of these are also imported from Mexico?
Often local, state, and federal government inspectors in ANY field are arrogant and will treat others in a subservient manner, causing tempers to spike and bad actions to sometimes occur. I’m not saying “all”, just that this is not an infrequent problem here in the USA which many “inspectees” can attest to. And if it can happen at all levels of government in our own country…and it frequently does…then you can be sure it happens outside of our country, too.
Governmental authority and ego never mix well for the rest of us. And if an administration is gungho on wrecking its own country’s economy so a global administration can be started, what’s happening here with Mexico is certainly an effective step forward in reaching that goal. In fact, BOTH country’s economy can be irreparably damaged. Kind of like “2 birds…one stone”.