Avocados, tequila and other iconic Mexican products are jeopardized by Trump's tariff threats
Mexicans are worried that threats by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to impose 25% tariffs could affect a wide range of iconic Mexican products, some of which support entire regional economies
URUAPAN, Mexico — Mexicans are worried that threats by Donald Trump to impose 25% tariffs could affect a wide range of iconic Mexican products and threaten entire regional economies.
In western Mexico, no crop supplies an income for so many small growers as avocados. But avocado growers, pickers and packers worry that U.S. consumers, faced with 25% higher prices, may just skip the guacamole.
“I think that when there is an increase in the price for any product, demand declines,” said avocado grower Enrique Espinoza. Orchards like his are the economic lifeblood in the western Mexico state of Michoacan. “It would be a tragedy if they closed down (the border) on us,” he said.
Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration — when he said he would impose tariffs — couldn't come at a worse time: It's around when Mexico starts shipping crates of the green fruit north for Super Bowl Sunday, the annual peak of consumption.
José Luis Arroyo Sandoval, a manager at an avocado packing house in Michoacan, says the economy would be affected.
“Work for us could decrease because it won't be quite so attractive to export," Arroyo said, “because avocados would get expensive, and avocados are already expensive.”
It may not just be Mexican producers who are affected; U.S. consumers may also be howling.
Mexican business leader Gina Diez Barroso told a news conference Tuesday that one U.S. agriculture official told her he had never had as many complaints as when the U.S. government halted import inspections on Mexican avocados in 2022.
“Never in his life had he had so
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