MEXICO CITY — American consumers will finally have the opportunity to try Jalisco avocados after 25 years in which neighboring Michoacán has been the only Mexican state authorized to ship the green fruit to the US market.
That could help with prices, which have soared this year to more than $2 a fruit amid a drop in production in Michoacán.
Growers and packers in Jalisco, just northwest of Michoacán, expressed hope that their state can provide more consistent production levels and price stability for avocados, which have fluctuated widely amid seasonal supply shortages.
Eleven trucks with almost 20 tons of avocados from Jalisco lined up Thursday in the mountain town of Zapotlán El Grande to leave for the United States.
“When we talked about very high prices a month ago, it was because the market did not have enough supply,” said Javier Medina Villanueva, president of the Jalisco Avocado Exporters Association. “Then we believe that the entry of Jalisco will close that shortage. … I think prices will stabilize.”
Consumers in the United States will not immediately recognize the difference: Avocados from Jalisco will not carry any special label and will simply be labeled “avocados from Mexico,” a phrase promoted for years by Michoacán growers.
The director of the Michoacán-based Association of Producers and Packers of Avocados in Mexico, José Luis Gallardo, said he does not see Jalisco, nor any of the other Mexican states now clamoring for US export certification. ., as competition.
“Today is a day of joy for everyone, to know that Jalisco is here, but it will be happier when the State of Mexico comes, when Nayarit, Colima, Puebla, Morelos come,” Gallardo said of the other states, pointing out there were room for more exports; Last season’s production in Michoacán was reduced by some 200,000 tons.
Currently, Mexico supplies about 92% of US imports of the fruit, and Mexico’s agriculture department says it is working to get more states certified. About a half dozen states grow significant amounts of the fruit, which prefers higher altitudes and cooler climates in Mexico.
Medina Villanueva pointed out that meeting US health requirements was not easy. “It took 10 years,” she said. “Patience was needed.”
US agricultural inspectors have to certify that Mexican avocados do not carry diseases or pests that could harm US orchards. The Mexican harvest is from January to March, while the US production is from April to September.
Inspections were halted in February for about 10 days after one of the US inspectors was threatened in Michoacán, where growers are routinely extorted by drug cartels. Some packers in Michoacán were reportedly buying avocados from other non-certified states and trying to pass them off as Michoacán, and they were angry that the US inspector didn’t agree with that.
Exports resumed after Mexico and the United States agreed to “enact the measures that guarantee the safety” of the inspectors.
Francisco Trujillo, head of Mexico’s animal and plant security agency, said Michoacan’s export ban should be a lesson for Jalisco growers.
“Caution should be part of this holiday,” said Trujillo, noting that certified avocados for export were worth four or five times more than those destined for the domestic market, creating “temptations” to pass off non-certified fruit. “We could risk this holiday turning into a tragedy” if the US were to ban exports again, he said.
Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro acknowledged that his state will have to avoid the problems that have affected the reputation of avocados in Michoacán, where some growers have cut down native pine forests to plant avocados and dried up local water supplies to irrigate them. . Drug cartels have also extorted protection payments from avocado growers and packers.
Alfaro said that Jalisco has plans “to develop a security program…so that this product can be produced in the orchards, shipped through Jalisco and reaches its final destination safely.”
Alfaro also said he would push to certify Jalisco avocados as deforestation-free, something Michoacán has been slow to do.
“The idea of promoting a plan to certify avocados as free of deforestation should not only be a problem for some producers. We want to establish that as an obligation for the good of the entire industry,” Alfaro said.
At this point, Jalisco has only about 20,000 acres (8,420 hectares) of certified pest-free avocado orchards, a small number compared to the nearly 300,000 acres (120,000 hectares) in Michoacán. But Alfaro said another 65,000 acres (26,000 hectares) in Jalisco were in line to be certified.
But it’s unclear whether exporting more avocados would hurt Mexican consumers, many of whom have been unable to afford their traditional guacamole — and the avocado slices that accompany many foods in Mexico — after domestic prices hit nearly $3 a pound. in the last weeks.
Pseudoguacamole recipes made primarily with green tomatoes or zucchini have been making the rounds on social media sites in Mexico amid rising prices. Coupled with the higher costs of limes, that has contributed to rising taco prices at street stalls.