Avocad–NOOO!

🙅‍♀️🥑 The US suspended all avocado imports from Mexico “until further notice” after a Department of Agriculture safety inspector received a threatening phone call over the weekend.

• The move was confirmed late Saturday on the eve of the Super Bowl – aka the biggest sales opportunity of the year for Mexican growers. Thankfully, avocados for this year’s event had already been distributed.
• Per the AP, the phone call is likely tied to drug cartel violence in Michoacan, which is the only Mexican state approved to ship avocados to the US.
• A USDA team of officials stationed there were reportedly robbed at gunpoint by a local gang in 2019. At the time, the agency threatened to suspend all Mexican activities in the event of a similar situation.

📸 The big picture: Many avocado growers in Michoacan say they and their family members are threatened with kidnapping by local drug gangs unless they pay up to thousands of dollars per acre in protection money.

+By the numbers: Mexican avocados represented 87% of the US market share in 2018, per USDA figures.