Why a Fortune Magazine Op-Ed Has California Avocado Growers Riled Up

The California Avocado Commission is challenging a Fortune opinion column defending unrestricted Mexican avocado imports, saying its argument for cheaper fruit ignores cartel influence, illegal deforestation, and other practices that distort competition and harm legitimate American and Mexican farmers.

The Oct. 14 commentary by the Mexican Hass Avocado Importers Association, argues that limiting import surges would raise consumer prices. But lower prices are not necessarily evidence of fair competition when criminal drug cartels seize orchards, extort growers, and influence which fruit enters the American market. To read the opinion piece published by Fortune, click here.

“The Mexican Hass Avocado Importers Association wants Americans to believe cheaper Mexican avocados are simply the result of free-market competition,” says Ken Melban, President of the California Avocado Commission. “But in the Mexican avocado industry where cartels control orchards, seize land, profit from illegal deforestation, and dictate whether fruit moves to market, it’s the criminal drug cartels, not the importers, that are determining what enters the supply chain and ultimately reaches American consumers. That’s not a free market. It’s a market distorted by drug cartels, which forces California growers to compete against cartels that don’t operate within the law.”

The California Avocado Commission points out:

• The U.S. Treasury Department has documented cartel extortion, land seizures, and illegal agricultural production. In August, Mexico deployed more than 1,500 military and National Guard personnel after security threats forced the suspension of U.S. avocado inspection activities in Michoacán.
• Illegal deforestation creates another unfair economic advantage. Climate Rights International identified U.S.-export-certified orchards containing illegally deforested land in 49 of 56 avocado-exporting municipalities in Michoacán and Jalisco. Producers who illegally clear forests can expand production while avoiding land-use restrictions and environmental compliance costs borne by lawful growers. Those artificially reduced costs are not evidence of greater efficiency or fair-market competition.
• In an Oct. 5 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, seven California members of Congress warned: “American avocado growers cannot compete in a market shaped by criminal organizations that profit regardless of the price paid to legitimate producers.” The lawmakers urged enforceable limits on Mexican avocado import surges during the USMCA negotiations.
• Mexican avocado shipments increased approximately 35% during the first four months of 2026, intensifying pressure on California’s nearly 3,000 growers.

The Commission is calling for a seasonal tariff-rate quota under the USMCA review to discourage market-disrupting import surges while maintaining Mexican avocado access to the U.S. market.

To learn more tariff-rate quotas, visit californiaavocado.com/trq.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Leave a reader comment below.