LOS ANGELES (KNX) – It was revealed on Saturday that the United States banned avocados from Mexico “until further notice” after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat.
“U.S. health authorities ... made the decision after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone,” the Mexico’s Agriculture Department said in a statement.
Phil Lempert, the "Supermarket Guru," told KNX In Depth that the U.S. has seen something like this before.
“We’ve seen this before on limes, for example, going back, oh I wanna say, six or seven years ago, when the price of limes nearly quadrupled,” he said. “Well, really it was the drug cartel in Mexico that was blocking lime from being exported to the U.S. because they own a lot of the lime fields. So they were jacking up the price.”
Lempert said the suspension isn’t all bad news considering the other places we get avocados from.
“…we grow a lot of avocados in California, Florida, we import them from Chile, from Peru, but our problem has been all about the weather,” he noted.
“Especially here in California because the avocado crop this past year has been smaller fruit and less. So we’re really gonna see more price increases going into the Super Bowl. Guacamole was up 17%, avocados was up about 11%, and we anticipate that both of those are going to go up substantially if we can find avocados.”
He also said another issue is how the seasons could impact the avocados we’ll see in supermarkets.
“Unlike climate change weather, we’re coming into the spring season here in California, in Florida, so the crops are more pervasive,” he explained.
“During the winter months, about 99% of all avocados do come from Mexico that are exported to the U.S. So that’s the light that we don’t know whether or not we’re gonna see a better this spring, this summer here in California. But in the short term, let’s not forget that supplies are gonna run out in supermarkets before this ban is lifted and there is probably going to be a couple weeks where it’s gonna be tough going.”
Lempert’s advice for avocado lovers? Stock up.
“Make sure you’re ripening them properly, make sure you’re making the guacamole,” he advised. “Freeze it if you have to if you’re one of these guacamole fanatics, but we’re gonna see it at the food and retail service level. So when you go to that Mexican restaurant or other restaurants, that serve guacamole, don’t be surprised if the portions are a little smaller or in some cases, they eliminate it off the menu.”
Listen to the full interview in the audio above.
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