US halts avocado imports from Mexico region before Super Bowl

The U.S. paused avocado shipments from one of Mexico’s major producing regions on security worries, in an announcement just a day before the Super Bowl when guacamole consumption typically soars.

The Mexican agriculture ministry said the temporary suspension involves avocados from Michoacán—the world’s biggest producing region of the billion-dollar avocado trade. The U.S. had informed Mexico’s agriculture ministry of the decision after one of its officers, who was carrying out inspection work in the city of Uruapan, received a threatening call to his cell phone, according to the statement.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture “reported that an investigation is currently being carried out to assess the threat and determine the necessary mitigation measures to guarantee the physical integrity of all of its personnel working in Michoacán,” according to the Mexican statement.

Michoacán, about a two-hour drive west of Mexico City, is rich in agriculture and exported more than 135,000 tons of avocados to the U.S. in the last six weeks alone. The U.S. is the world’s top importer of the fruit and prices tend to surge in the weeks before the Super Bowl—the biggest day for consumption in the U.S.