US will gradually resume avocado inspections in conflictive Mexican state, ambassador says
U.S. government inspections of avocados and mangoes in the Mexican state of Michoacan will gradually resume
MEXICO CITY — U.S. government inspections of avocados and mangoes in the Mexican state of Michoacan will gradually resume, U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar announced Friday, a week after they were suspended over an assault on inspectors.
The U.S. Agriculture Department inspectors “will gradually begin to return to the packing plants following recent aggression against them,” Salazar said in a statement. “However, it is still necessary to advance in guaranteeing their security before reaching full operations.”
“In fact, more work still needs to be done so that the (agriculture) inspectors are safe and can resume inspections and thereby eliminate the impediments to the trade of avocado and mango to the United States from Michoacan.”
Last weekend, two USDA employees were assaulted and temporarily held by assailants in Michoacan, Salazar said earlier this week. That led the U.S. to suspend inspections in Mexico’s biggest avocado-producing state.
The employees work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Because the United States also grows avocados, U.S. inspectors work in Mexico to ensure exported avocados don’t carry diseases that could hurt U.S. crops.
Earlier this week, Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said the inspectors had been stopped in a protest by residents of Aranza in western Michoacan on June 14.
He downplayed the situation, suggesting the inspectors were never at risk. He said that he got in touch with the U.S. Embassy the following day and that state forces were providing security for the state’s avocado producers and packers.
Many avocado growers in
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