A watershed moment was marked last week when trailers replete with 220 tons of avocados left a packing plant in Zapotiltic, Jalisco en route for the United States.
The first ever shipment of the fruit to cross into the United States from a Mexican state other than Michoacan did not go uncelebrated.
Javier Medina Villanueva, president of the Jalisco Association of Exporting Producers, said it had taken ten years of hard work to bring Jalisco’s avocado orchards up to certifiable U.S. standards.
Avocados from Mexico have been fueling Americans taste for the fruit since 1997, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted a 1914 import ban, which originally was implemented due to fears over pests like seed weevils infesting U.S. crops. However, up until now only Michoacan managed to obtain U.S. certification, a decision that saw production in the state boom in subsequent years. Meanwhile, avocados continued to gain more popularity north of the border. In 2021, the United States imported 1.2 million metric tons of avocados, with 1.1 million (89 percent) coming from Mexico, amounting to revenue of more than $US2.9 billion.
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