The Rural Development Secretariat of Jalisco stated that last May the USDA officially certified the avocado production of several municipalities, granting them an export-grade qualification.
However, more administrative barriers went up, further delaying permission for the fruit's export. But further negotiations cleared the way. The endorsement in their pocket, producers from the municipality of Zapotla'n el Grande shipped the first batch of avocados aboard five trucks with an official ceremony last Monday where representatives of the federal government and the USDA were in attendance.
Two days later, the shipment was stopped at the border in Reynosa, Tamaulipas due to "setbacks in the implementation of the required protocols," as the Rural Development Secretariat of Jalisco explained it. On Friday producers decided to redirect part of the shipment to Canada and the remainder to the domestic market.
Apparently, the agreement between both countries was that Jalisco avocados would be granted access to the U.S. if that country's potatoes could enter the domestic market in return. That part of the agreement "got complicated" earlier last week, which triggered the USDA's rejection of the Jalisco avocados, said the state's Rural Development Secretary, He'ctor Padilla.
"This will pass simply as an awkward moment," acknowledging the anger of producers but urged that everyone involved must move on because "in the end what we're looking for is to open up an important market for the producers and business people of the state. Negotiations with the United States are always variable, never comfortable. This is not the first incident, but we'll get nowhere by fighting. We are not in a hurry to sell, it isn't that we have no markets. We are interested in entering [the U.S.] because it is a market that we want to win . . . Our fruit is currently sold in 18 or 19 countries. The fruit of Jalisco is of the best quality, thus we're in no emergency situation. It's no big deal if they do not open their doors now," asserted Padilla.
If either nation closes its doors, Mexican avocados will be like the canary in the mine in the ongoing debate over the US wanting to put tariffs on Mexican agriculture, something that would come as no surprise in a long line of surprises from the Trump Administration, with huge US agribusiness corporations already very loudly and very clearly whispering in the ear of the USDA.
A Spanish newspaper columnist, Marta Garca Aller, wrote that most Americans will not like or tolerate any avocado tax that drives up prices and makes guacamole a luxury in the class of caviar.
"In a time of post-truth politics, it's the most unexpected things that raise awareness among the population," she wrote. "And the stomach is one of those things. Should Trump renegotiate NAFTA, not even something as American as the Super Bowl might be safe."
Frank (last name unknown) made this interesting comment about an article in Mexico News Daily:
It will probably take a few years but the world economy will not have much trouble bypassing the US. Their cars are poorly engineered and badly built pieces of overpriced crap anyway. Let Mexico buy German, Korean and Japanese cars instead and let the Gringos eat potatoes until they're even more obese and have to buy even bigger SUVs that nobody else really needs... if they can still afford them once they double or triple in price when manufacturers have to pay an average of $35 in US wages instead of the $5 per hour they pay their Mexican workers. I also hope folks all over the world grow smart enough to stay away from poisonous US exports like sodas and crappy franchise food. Let them eat their own s**t. This can be a big chance for the entire world economically and health wise.
The history of avocado importing has a tortured history that most Americans have no idea about:
The boon in the industry is fairly recent. U.S. health authorities banned for more than 80 years the import of Michoacan avocados, arguing that they would introduce a species of fruit fly into the U.S.
The Association of Avocado Producers, Packers and Exporters of Michoacan reports that this state produces more than half the avocados consumed in the world. Just in the town of Tanctaro, one of the main productive centers of the region, nine out of every 10 pesos can be traced back to avocado production.
Even the cartels have had an effect on Avocado production and export:
The arrival of the drug cartel Los Zetas in Michoaca'n in 2007 halted growth. Assassinations, kidnappings, extortion, theft of produce and farmland, and price controls changed the business for all producers.
Los Zetas were violently displaced by rival cartels La Familia Michoacana and Los Caballeros Templarios, who took over all their activities, from drug trafficking to extortion. By 2012, The Wall Street Journal reported that Michoaca'n avocados had become the equivalent of the so-called blood diamonds of Africa.
Have Monsanto Potatoes made a US comeback because of market ignorance and indifference?
In 2000, McDonald's Corp. told its french-fry suppliers to stop using GMO potatoes from Monsanto, the only U.S. company to launch a genetically modified version of the tuber. So, J.R. Simplot Co., a major maker of French fries, instructed its farmers to stop growing NewLeaf potatoes. In 1999, NewLeaf potatoes were planted on about 55,000 acres in North America, but in 2000, NewLeaf acreage shrank by half. No sales improvement came from Monsanto's decision to add a new genetically engineered feature to its potato resistance to the Leaf Roll virus).
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