Mexico avocado export resumption after Michoacán producer agreement, Digi Mart USA News (Michoacán, Mexico): The Mexican government announced that avocado exports will resume this Thursday, November 5, after producers, workers and packing companies reached an agreement to resolve differences over fruit prices in Michoacán.
Agriculture and Rural Development Secretary Columba Jazmín López Gutiérrez said the deal was reached on Tuesday night and will allow agricultural exports to resume after several days of interruptions. During the morning press conference of President Claudia Sheinbaum, she said the agreement was reached at around 11:00 p.m.
and will allow Mexican avocado shipments to international markets, including the United States, its main destination, to resume.
The dispute began with a collapse in avocado prices in Michoacán, where the price of a kilogram fell to 13 pesos and reached a maximum of 20 pesos in some areas. Producers said these amounts were not enough to cover production costs.
In response, beginning October 23, a group of producers suspended harvesting and blocked roads to demand better purchasing conditions from packing companies. The interruption also affected day laborers and harvesters, whose incomes depend on the harvest.
The Association of Mexican Hass Avocado Importers in the United States reported that shipments were partially suspended, but did not immediately specify how many shipments were affected.
President Sheinbaum attributed part of the price decline to increased international competition, as other producing countries have expanded their supply in global markets.
During the conference, authorities also addressed reports of the presence of the avocado seed borer. The agriculture secretary clarified that some videos circulated during the conflict referred to situations different from those described.
In one case in Jalisco, she explained the product was not intended for export but was headed to an avocado oil processing plant. Regarding another incident in Nayarit, she said the reported worm was outside the fruit and in transport boxes, so that shipment also did not go to export.
López Gutiérrez said that in 28 years of exports from Michoacán, no case of the avocado seed borer has been recorded, and she highlighted that the state has 50 municipalities free of this pest.
The Secretariat of Agriculture also reported that 93 percent of Mexico’s cultivated avocado area is certified as free of seed and branch borers. That figure represents 243,926 hectares distributed across 15 states, with benefits for more than 94,000 small and medium-scale producers.
The federal government is also working on an agro-export labor certificate, currently in a pilot phase, intended to ensure that day laborers and harvesters have social security coverage and are registered with the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). It is also expected that crops intended for export must not come from deforested land; the president said the mechanism to verify this condition is still under development.
Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary of Foreign Trade Luis Rosendo Gutiérrez said the Michoacán Avocado Strip was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation to grant the product a denomination of origin and strengthen its protection.
