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Avocados may soon be hard to find in stores throughout the country. According to AP, the U.S. government has suspended all imports of Mexican avocados after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threatening message.
The suspension was confirmed late Saturday, February 12, on the eve of the Super Bowl which is the biggest sales opportunity of the year for Mexican avocado growers. According to AP, avocado exports are the latest victims of the drug cartel which has affected avocado growers in the western state of Michoacan, the only state in Mexico fully authorized to export to the U.S. market.
"Until further notice," the U.S. government has suspended all imports of Mexican avocados, according to a statement from Mexico's Agriculture Department.
“U.S. health authorities … made the decision after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone,” the department wrote.
AP explains that because the United States also grows avocados, U.S. inspectors work in Mexico to make sure exported avocados don't carry diseases that could hurt crops in the U.S.