The US Department of Agriculture has given the green light for imports of avocados from mainland Spain to the US. Shipments of fruit that has been certified free of all quarantine pests will be permitted from 30 January. Varieties other than Hass will also have to be treated for Mediterranean fruit fly before entering the US.
Spain exports around 40,000 tonnes of avocados a year, with France absorbing just under half of this total. The USDA says it expects Spanish shipments to the US of around 260 tonnes a year.
However, Reyes Gutierrez, one of Spain’s biggest avocado marketers, said it had no plans to ship to the North American market. “We don’t see the US as a viable market,” a spokesman for the Málaga-based company told Fruitnet. “The main issue is price – our higher production costs means we can’t compete with Mexico and Chile so it doesn’t make sense commercially.”
The US imported 750,000 tonnes of avocados in 2012/13, of which almost 518,000 tonnes came from Mexico. Per capita consumption is rising by around 6.4 per cent a year.
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