Mexico sends troops to improve security as U.S. halts avocado imports over threats

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• Mexico is deploying 1,500 additional troops to Michoacán after the U.S. suspended avocado inspections over a security threat.
• The halt follows years of cartel violence and extortion in the avocado belt.
• Even a short shutdown could rattle Michoacán’s avocado-dependent economy.

Mexico City — Mexico is sending 1,500 more troops to the embattled state of Michoacán after the U.S. announced this week that it had temporarily stopped inspecting avocados there over security concerns, disrupting exports of the fruit.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that her government was doing everything in its power to improve security in Michoacán, where for years warring criminal groups have battled for a piece of the lucrative avocado trade.

Many growers, packers and transporters of the fruit are forced to pay hefty taxes to organized crime — or risk becoming victims of violence. Some criminal groups have even planted their own avocado groves.

American inspectors the ground in Michoacán, who monitor plantations and packing plants to ensure the fruit is pest-free, have occasionally found themselves in the cross-hairs.

In 2024, the U.S. suspended all avocado imports from the state after two U.S. Department of Agriculture employees were kidnapped and assaulted by assailants in Michoacán.

The scheme, known as huachicol fiscal, is the second-largest source of revenue for cartels, after drug trafficking.

The U.S. took the same precaution two years earlier, when an inspector received a threatening phone call. In each case, the U.S. resumed inspections — and imports of the fruit — within a few days.

But even a brief pause in shipments threatens the economy in Michoacán, where 200,000 people work in the avocado trade. It could also affect consumer prices of the fruit in the U.S., which receives 90% of its avocados from Mexico.

This time, the U.S. did not say whether a specific incident had prompted it to suspend inspections in Michoacán. A State Department statement blamed a “threat to U.S. interests.”

Michoacán’s governor said in a statement that the U.S. action was a “preventive” measure after several recent high-profile arrests by the Mexican government of criminals accused of extortion.

A crusading Mexican mayor who battled cartels like a vigilante hero was assassinated, thrusting his widow into the fight he died leading.

But Juan Carlos Venegas, a representative of the state’s avocado industry, said in an interview with Radio Fórmula that he believed Mexican authorities were downplaying the security threat.

He said avocado growers have for years been begging the government to do more to address extortion.

“It is very unfortunate that an entire industry, which generates millions of dollars in revenue for Mexico, has to be shut down,” he said. “We face total uncertainty.”

Avocado imports to the U.S. totaled nearly $4 billion last year. This year, the U.S. expects to import 2.8 million metric tons of avocados, a record.

The effect on consumer prices depends on how long the inspections remain stalled, experts say.