Worker Strike Puts Mexican Avocados at Risk

Do you like avocados? Who doesn’t? They are great for guacamole, and avocado toast has been trendy for a while now. But a strike in the Mexican state of Michoacán has put the crop at risk, and if you were planning to feature the popular product on your Thanksgiving menu, you could be out of luck.

The strike is costing the industry $4.3 million a day, according to a producers’ association. Producers took the stoppage action last week, claiming that their authentic aguacates michoacanos were being put at risk by avocados from other regions in Mexico being imported to Michoacán and being passed off as the prized species.

As reported by Mexico News Daily, more than 24,000 workers are affected by the strike. Ramón Paz, spokesman for the Mexican Association of Avocado Producers and Packers, said Mexico normally sends 3,000 tons of avocados to the U.S.  daily, but the work stoppage has put a big dent in that number.

The Packer quoted an industry insider:

“I would say it’s fairly easy math as the system runs out of fruit,” Jim Donovan, senior vice president of global sourcing for Mission Produce, Oxnard, Calif., said on Nov. 8. The week of Nov. 19 — Thanksgiving is Nov. 22 — will most likely be when the U.S. supply of Mexican avocados is gone, if harvests don’t resume, he said.

Let’s hope the strike ends soon.