US government inspections of avocados and mangoes in the Mexican state of Michoacan will gradually resume, US Ambassador Ken Salazar announced on Friday, a week ago. after being suspended for an assault on the inspectors.
USDA inspectors “will begin to gradually return to packing plants after the recent crackdown on them,” Salazar said in a statement. “However, there is still progress to be made in ensuring its safety before reaching full operations.”
“In fact, more work still needs to be done so that the (agricultural) inspectors are safe and can resume inspections and thus remove the impediments to the avocado and mango trade in the United States from Michoacan.”
Last weekend, two USDA employees were assaulted and temporarily detained by assailants in Michoacan, Salazar said earlier this week. This led the US to suspend inspections in the largest avocado-producing state of Mexico.
The employees work for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the US Department of Agriculture. Because the U.S. also grows avocados, U.S. inspectors work in Mexico to make sure exported avocados don't carry diseases that could harm U.S. crops.
Earlier this week, Michoacan Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said inspectors had been stopped at a June 14 protest by residents of Aranza in western Michoacan.
He downplayed the situation, suggesting the inspectors were never at risk. He said he contacted the US embassy the next day and that state forces were providing security to the state's avocado growers and packers.
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Many avocado growers in Michoacán say drug gangs threaten them or their family members with kidnapping or death unless they pay protection money, which sometimes amounts to thousands of dollars per acre.
There have also been reports of organized crime taking avocados grown in other states not approved for export and trying to get them through US inspections.
In February 2022, the US government suspended inspections of Mexican avocados “until further notice” after a US plant safety inspector in Michoacan received a threatening message. The shutdown was lifted after about a week.
Later that year, Jalisco became the second Mexican state authorized to export avocados to the US
Michoacan is in the amid ongoing cartel violence between the Jalisco New Generation cartel and the Michoacan gang, the Viagras. The State Department issued a Level 4 travel warning for Michoacán last week, advising Americans not to travel to the state due to crime and kidnapping concerns.
Earlier this week, Salazar said he will travel to Mexico next week to meet with Bedolla to address security issues, among other issues.
The new pause in inspections did not block shipments of Mexican avocados to the US, because Jalisco is now an exporter and there are many Michoacan avocados already in transit.
Salazar said he was optimistic that things were moving in a positive direction, but that they would not be satisfied until inspectors could work without threats to their safety.
