California Avocado Growers Pleading for New USMCA Measures Now

The California Avocado Commission renewed its call for a seasonal tariff-rate quota (TRQ) on Mexican avocados after the State Department suspended U.S. government activities in Michoacán because of a threat to American interests and reiterated the state’s Level 4 “Do Not Travel” designation, and after Mexico reported a suspected regulated pest at a packinghouse.

Michoacán is Mexico’s leading avocado-exporting state and the source of most U.S.-bound Mexican avocados.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has described extortion as “particularly rampant” in Michoacán agriculture and said cartels “routinely extort Mexican farmers, packers and others” involved in products including avocados. Security threats have repeatedly interrupted U.S. inspections and reduced orchard oversight.

On Aug. 4, 2026 it was reported that a packinghouse inspection in Mexico detected a larva suspected to be a regulated pest, though It could not be collected or identified, might be the avocado branch borer, Macrocopturus aguacatae, renewing calls from the California Avocado Commission for stronger monitoring and pre-shipment checks of imports from Mexico.

Mexican avocado exports to the U.S. surged 35% during the first four months of 2026. The commission said the surge is intensifying price pressure during California’s harvest and underscores the need for a TRQ in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) review. A defined volume would enter at the standard tariff from March through September, with additional shipments facing a higher rate. The TRQ would complement restored U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections and help preserve domestic production.

“Our growers have no hope of surviving when the ordinary rules of the market are replaced by the Wild Wild West,” says Ken Melban, California Avocado Commission President. “This is the moment for a seasonal tariff-rate quota on Mexican avocados and the full reinstatement of rigorous U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections before any Mexican avocados are permitted to enter the U.S. market. Business as usual with Mexico must end.”

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