The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (APHIS-USDA), announced that it decided to pause, until further notice, the inspection activities of avocado in Michoacán, which implies the detention of imports.
The US health authority made the determination after one of its officers who was carrying out inspection work in Uruapan, Michoacán, received a threatening call on his official cell phone.
APHIS-USDA reported that it is conducting an investigation to assess the threat and determine the necessary mitigation measures to guarantee the physical integrity of all of its personnel working in Michoacán, one of the main producers of the fruit in Mexico.
Information of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Mexico, noted that a meeting is being held between APHIS staff and representatives Agents of the Association of Producers and Packers Exporters of Avocado of Mexico (APEAM) with the local and state police to address the issue.
According to the Work Plan for the export of Hass avocado from Mexico to the United States (PT), personnel from the US sanitary agency inspect the avocado that is going to be exported and, once authorized, it is moved to the packaging for its export conditioning.
In the In the last six weeks, avocado producers from Michoacán have exported to the United States more than 135 thousand tons of avocado, through more than five thousand shipments of fresh fruit, informed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), referred to the issue of the suspension in his morning conference this Monday, in which he mentioned that they are reviewing the matter to see what the threat consisted of and explained that it could be a a situation of competition for a market that other countries want to enter.
“In all this there are also many economic and political interests, there is competition, they do not want the Mexican avocado to enter the United States or to predominate For its quality. There are other countries interested in selling avocados, and that’s how it happens in other cases, vegetables,” AMLO said.
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