Mexico and the United States are working on a plan to release the export of Michoacán avocado in the coming days. After the suspension of imports established on June 15 by the Joe Biden Government, due to an attack against inspectors from the US Department of Agriculture, the commercial relationship on this product, and mango, seems to be on track again. Ambassador Ken Salazar visited the State this Monday to meet with the governor, Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla. After the meeting, he assured in a press conference that they are working on a plan to guarantee the safety of American employees in that entity. The proposal covers a total of three areas: violence, attention to the environment and working conditions of workers in the sector. The governor has said, without further details, that they have planned “a security model” so that the inspectors from the neighboring country can do their work with peace of mind.
“Friday’s aggression worried us,” Salazar admitted this Monday, who said that one of his main tasks in Mexico as ambassador was precisely to ensure that his Government employees are protected when doing their work. Two weeks ago, a group of community members protesting in the municipality of Aranza, Michoacán, detained and beat a couple of American inspectors who were passing through the area to verify the quality of the fruit to be exported. “As a result of the incident with our inspectors, on instructions from the regional security officer of the Embassy, it has been decided to suspend all operations in the State,” the Biden Executive then notified the Association of Avocado Exporters in Mexico. The episode even led them to issue a security alert to warn their citizens about the insecurity situation in Michoacán.
“Safety, environmental, labor, we are on the right track,” the ambassador said this Monday when outlining his priorities in a message to the media, in which he assured that the two Administrations would work hand in hand to resolve the problem. “On Friday we reached a forward plan so that avocados can now be exported to the United States. We are going to continue working on this, and I know we are going to be successful,” he added. The Mexican Secretary of Agriculture, Víctor Villalobos, and the head of the North American Unit of the Foreign Ministry, Roberto Velasco, also participated in the meeting in Michoacán this Monday.
Michoacán, the most important producer of avocados in Mexico, has not avoided the wave of violence that is hitting the entire country. And within its limits, American workers have experienced a fate similar to that of the citizens who inhabit one of the entities with the worst insecurity numbers. The proposed plan, the governor explained, aims to guarantee the safety of US inspectors to prevent controls, and with it, imports, from slowing down. In addition, Salazar has said that they will seek to “be in very efficient contact” with both the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the state Executive, to efficiently resolve possible altercations and prevent another pause in the commercial relationship.
Since last Saturday, the return of inspectors to the State has been implemented gradually, said Ramírez Bedolla, who has not specified what the security plan consists of. The US State Department placed Michoacán, in the week of the attack, on a level 4 alert, equivalent to a warning not to travel due to crimes and kidnappings. In this same danger category are the entities of Zacatecas, Tamaulipas, Sinaloa, Guerrero and Colima.
At the press conference, Villalobos considered the possibility that in the future the inspectors who certify the quality of the fruits for the United States will be Mexican. “This does not exclude that they could be subject to imponderables, as can happen here in this state or in any other, but what we would avoid is stopping exports, so the Ministry of Agriculture, through Senasica, is perfectly prepared for this progressive replacement, obviously in cooperation with our partners involved, which is APHIS [Servicio de Inspección Sanitaria de Plantas y Animales, por sus siglas en inglés] and the United States Department of Agriculture,” said López Obrador’s Secretary of Agriculture.
This Monday, the president expressed his discontent with the stoppage in exports, and criticized the attitude taken by the Biden Government towards the conflict. “The avocado export situation is already normalizing and today that the Ambassador will be in Michoacán, I believe it will be resolved,” he said in his daily morning conference. “We first asked the United States Government not to act unilaterally. We have very good relations, we are working together and that is not the way.” Although this is not the first time that the entry of what is known as green gold has been suspended, this time the suspension unleashed a crisis in the entity and ended up costing the sector several million. Agricultural Market Consulting Group estimated losses from the pause at about $7.5 million per day.
![An avocado orchard during a drought in the mountains of Villa Madero (Michoacán), in April 2024.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/3MZYPFYG3BD5DI3NAC3ILSEAGQ.jpg?auth=6079eafe2bbb909005e7a6f393116caead53373b3280ca148bfe4e972fc6b511&width=414)
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