California Avocado Growers Ask USTR to Cap or Ban Mexican Fruit
Two California growers want the USTR to ban or cap Mexican avocados in the 2027 USMCA review. One asks for a ban, the other for import quotas.
Two California avocado growers have taken complaints about Mexican fruit to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), asking that limits be discussed in the 2027 review of the USMCA, called the T-MEC in Mexico, according to a report by Expansión. One grower wants a ban on Mexican avocados. The other wants import quotas written into the treaty.
The agreement remains in force. Expansión reported that Washington’s decision not to back a 16-year extension in the joint 2026 review led to annual reviews instead.
Two growers, two different proposals
A grower named Bantle asks that Mexican avocados be barred from entering the West Coast, and she would extend the ban to the whole United States. If a quota is chosen instead, she would accept it only from September to December, which she identifies as her slow season. She places her harvest between January and September. She also says New Zealand has banned Mexican avocados.
Jaime Kovaly, who farms in Valley Center, wants quotas rather than tariffs. The limit should set how much fruit can enter while the California harvest is under way, and Kovaly ends up proposing a tariff-rate quota, which allows a set volume in at one rate and charges more above it. Kovaly wants the cap to be part of the treaty itself.
The cost squeeze behind the request
Kovaly harvests about 36,000 kilos of avocados a year from 1,200 trees on five hectares. By Kovaly’s estimate, water, labor and agrochemicals pushed production costs up almost 50% over five years. The wholesale price stayed flat until it fell 30% in 2026.
Kovaly says some neighboring owners chose to shut off irrigation and let their trees dry out rather than keep losing money.
What the growers say about Mexican competition
Both call competition from Mexican avocados unfair. Kovaly estimates that growing avocados in Mexico costs less than a tenth of what it costs in California. According to Kovaly, California once produced 90% of avocados in the United States and now supplies about 10%.
Kovaly fears more orchards will close and the US market will end up depending entirely on Mexican supply, which Kovaly considers exposed to plant health problems and extortion. Kovaly also argues that Mexican exporters have other markets where they could sell, even if the United States is the easier one.
What this means for Mexican exporters
The measures would apply to avocados shipped from Mexico into the United States, in a trade where the treaty is still in force but now faces yearly reviews. Both proposals come from individual growers, and no USTR decision on either has been reported. The next point to watch is the 2027 review, where the growers want their requests discussed.
Source: telegra.ph
