CAC claims Level 4 alert and suspected pest report add urgency to seasonal tariff-rate quota and restored US inspections
The California Avocado Commission (CAC) reiterated calls for a seasonal tariff-rate quota on Mexican avocados after the State Department suspended US government activities in Michoacán and raised its travel threat status in the state. The move also comes as Mexico reported a suspected regulated pest at a packinghouse.
Michoacán is Mexico’s leading avocado-exporting state and the source of most US- bound Mexican avocados.
The US Treasury Department has described extortion as “particularly rampant” in Michoacán agriculture and said cartels “routinely extort Mexican farmers, packers and others” involved in products including avocados. Security threats have repeatedly interrupted US inspections and reduced orchard oversight.
“The Trump administration is right to protect American personnel and confront the cartels,” said CAC president Ken Melban. “The Office of the US Trade Representative and the US Department of Agriculture are highly skilled, fully informed and well positioned to act. Consistent with the administration’s America First, anti-cartel and Make America Healthy Again agenda, cartels cannot be allowed to exploit the US -Mexico-Canada Agreement to undercut American growers and destroy domestic production.”
On 4 August it was reported that a packhouse inspection in Mexico detected a larva suspected of being the avocado branch borer, Macrocopturus aguacatae, a regulated pest. This prompted calls from the commission for stronger monitoring and pre-shipment checks of imports from Mexico.
Mexican avocado exports to the US grew 35 per cent during the first four months of 2026 compared to the year-earlier period. The commission said the surge is intensifying price pressure during California’s harvest and underscores the need for a tariff rate quota (TRQ) in the US-Mexico- Canada Agreement review.
This would mean that a defined volume would enter at the standard tariff from March through September, with additional shipments facing a higher rate. The TRQ would complement restored USDA inspections and help preserve domestic production.
“Our growers have no hope of surviving when the ordinary rules of the market are replaced by the Wild Wild West,” Melban said. “This is the moment for a seasonal tariff- rate quota on Mexican avocados and the full reinstatement of rigorous USDA inspections before any Mexican avocados are permitted to enter the US market. Business as usual with Mexico must end.”
