Threat To Inspector Ends With US Suspending Avocado Imports From Mexico
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The US has suspended avocado imports from Mexico after a US official was threatened.
According to the Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the US decided to pause, until further notice, the avocado inspection activities in Mexico's western state of Michoacan after one of its officers received a threatening call to his official cell phone.
Michoacan is the only area authorized to export avocados to the United States. According to Mexico's agriculture ministry, in the past six weeks, Michoacan avocado producers have exported more than 135,000 tons of avocados to the US.
The area's proximity to the Pacific Ocean, where the avocados are farmed and shipped from, is also the site of a turf war between drug cartels.
Mexican local and state police are working with the USDA to try to address the import issue.