CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — A California avocado grower says there is no need to horde your guac due to the U.S. suspension of avocado imports.
“All of the grocery stores are fully stocked and all of the avocados will keep on the shelves, said Ben Holtz, president of California Avocado Direct. “There should not be any empty shelves anytime soon.”
The suspension of avocado imports came after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat. The ban was placed in the western state of Michoacan, the only state in Mexico fully authorized to export to the U.S. market.
Roughly 80 percent of avocados the United States receives come from Mexico. That’s due to the country being the world’s top grower and exporter of the fruit, and the U.S. is by far its largest customer.
Holtz told NewsNation’s Leland Vittert that there is about a three-week supply in the pipeline for the U.S.
“So depending on how long this hold lasts, then we’ll see how much impact it’ll have on the supply in the U.S.” Holtz said.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador suggested Monday that there were political and economic interests at play in the U.S. decision. But Holtz said that conspiracy is false.
“This particular issue, I’ve been told through my network and sources, was not related at all to the cartels … it was a safety threat on a USDA inspector official,” Holtz said.
“So what am I understanding … is that the conversation got to a very serious, escalated level, and threats were made on the lives of one or multiple inspectors. And so they said, ‘Hey, guys, we need to come to an agreement on some new adjustments, new changes, and new safety measures because we don’t want anybody losing their life over these.'”
The U.S. measure was due to years of worries that drug cartel violence in the western Mexico state of Michoacan — where gangs extort money from avocado and lime growers by threatening to kidnap and kill them — has spilled over to threats against U.S. inspectors.
U.S. consumers should expect to pay more for avocados in the next few weeks, but only due to inflation. Holtz said so far, the U.S. government hasn’t given any official timeframe on how long this suspension could last.
“A resolution has been unofficially reached,” Holtz said. “And now it’s just a matter of having a safe return to the inspectors that certify the fruit coming up north.”
