Michoacán avocado harvest resumption after pest dispute, Digi Mart USA News (Michoacán, Mexico): The 20 Local Plant Health Boards of Michoacán and the Coordinadora Purépecha agreed to resume avocado harvesting on Thursday, November 5, as part of measures to recover Mexican avocado exports to the United States. The announcement follows a phytosanitary and commercial conflict among producers in the sector.
The agreement was reached on Tuesday after several days of inspections, detentions and destruction of avocado shipments from Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima due to contamination with the seed borer pest. In a statement, the organizations said the harvests will be carried out in an orderly and timely manner to allow exports to the United States to reopen.
The organizations clarified that the announcement refers to the resumption of harvesting and does not confirm that shipments to the U.S. market have already been restored.
Claims also cover the control of fruit movement between states and the prices producers receive.
Since October 27, Michoacán producers have set up inspection points to check shipments entering the state, after reporting avocados from Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima moving with documents listing those states as origin. Productores Unidos de Aguacate de Michoacán reported the destruction of 52 tons of fruit from the three states, bound for the U.S.
export market through the packer Grupo West Pak de México, with support from Senasica and a Local Plant Health Board.
On November 2, a 45-ton load from Nayarit was incinerated; it has not been confirmed whether this was a separate shipment from the 52-ton report. In another case at the San Pancho inspection point in Peribán, a truck carrying 26.6 tons of avocados from Zapotlán el Grande, Jalisco was held after the seed borer (Stenoma catenifer) was reported, with the vehicle and fruit placed under guard by the Mexican Army while Senasica was notified.
On October 30, Productores Unidos also reported that five vehicles were detained for transporting allegedly contaminated avocados bound for the Zavocado Frutas Finas packing house, though the weight of those loads was not specified. On October 29, representatives of the Coordinadora Estatal P’urhépecha, APEAM, the Michoacán Agriculture Secretariat and Productores Unidos met, with Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla participating.
Agreements included strengthening verification points, controlling fruit movement between and within states, and applying the Binational Operational Plan.
Participants also proposed setting export volumes by municipality based on movement records from the last three seasons and establishing weekly harvest schedules. For November, an initial volume of roughly 20,000 tons per week was proposed, distributed among producing municipalities.
On Tuesday, Governor Bedolla backed stronger inspections and called for a higher price for Michoacán producers.
The Association of Mexican Avocado Producers and Exporters (APEAM) said on November 2 that Jalisco was maintaining harvesting activities while Michoacán awaited the Local Plant Health Boards to resume operations. APEAM stated that the borer findings corresponded to avocados from Nayarit, a state not certified or authorized for the U.S.
export program. Its director, Luis de la Rocha, said on Tuesday that the association has no authority to set avocado prices, which he said depend on supply and demand in the United States.
Productores Unidos de Aguacate de Michoacán also distanced itself from blockades and road disruptions not connected to phytosanitary inspection points, saying it supports free circulation. Harvesting resumes Thursday, but the reopening of exports to the United States will depend on meeting the required phytosanitary and operational conditions.
