Latest news with #CaliforniaAvocadoCommission
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The iconic California avocado is in trouble, and this farmer is fighting to save it
Norman Kachuck stood on a loamy ridge overlooking his inheritance. Avocado trees blanketed the hillsides of ACA Groves in three directions, just a portion of a 372-acre spread studded with 16,000 specimens, many of them dense with branches weighed down by that quintessential California fruit. The serene San Diego County property felt far from the chaotic epicenter of the global avocado industry in Mexico. Violence, corruption and environmental degradation have saturated the avocado trade there, causing the U.S. to briefly stop imports and senators to agitate for action by the federal government. "Mexican avocado imports are tainted conflict fruit," said Kachuck, 70, a former neurologist who heads his family's business. "The Mexican avocado industry is corrupt and ungoverned — and the American consumer is being deceived." A deluge of inexpensive avocados from Mexico has imperiled the livelihoods of California growers, Kachuck among them. A quirky and voluble man, Kachuck is on a quest to save the California avocado, taking political and legal action against entrenched interests he sees as an impediment to farmers like him. He calls himself a "Neuroavocado Warrior." "You've got to be an activist, you've got to be proactive and you have to defend your strengths and buttress your weaknesses in everything you do," said Kachuck, a married father of three adult children. "Everything has adversarial components to it. But the operative part is making peace." As recently as the 1990s, the U.S. did not import Mexican avocados. But 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement opened the floodgates: now roughly 90% of the avocados consumed here are imported. And the bulk of that fruit — again, roughly 90% — comes from Mexico, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At the same time, Southern California farmers must survive in a drought-prone state, and extreme weather brought on by climate change has meant irregular crop yields, among other challenges. Dylan Marschall, a real estate broker who specializes in avocado properties, said the market dynamics are brutally simple: "Yeah, California has better-quality avocados, but retailers are in the business to make money. And if they can get [better] prices from Mexico, they aren't going to pay for California fruit." Amid the tumult, Kachuck has battled with the California Avocado Commission, accusing it of insufficiently aiding growers. Now he is bracing for President Trump's trade policies, unsure what they might do to his business. Kachuck said he would welcome a tariff, but pointed out that another major Trump initiative — deporting millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally — could seriously deplete his and other farmers' labor forces. Change can't come soon enough. Kachuck's line of credit is tapped out and he's had to draw hundreds of thousands of dollars from his retirement account to keep the business afloat. Amid the avalanche of foreign fruit, the seasons spanning 2019 through 2023 were "just awful," Kachuck said. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified the problems. But he presses on. "Yeah, I'm taking chances. And I'm stupid enough to not know when quitting is correct," he said. "I just have this general sense of optimism — or hubris — that I can figure it out." Kachuck took over his family's business in 2010, making the long drive to San Diego County from his home in Valley Village. He had just walked away from a career in medicine — he'd practiced as a neurologist at USC for 20 years — to aid his ailing father. Israel Kachuck, a onetime astronautics engineer and general contractor, bought more than 450 acres of mostly barren land in the 1960s and began planting avocado trees. "He had been a restless soul for as long as I was aware," Kachuck said. "lt was part and parcel with what he was doing: moving things around in his brain to accommodate problem solving that was interesting and remunerative." The son had a similar wandering spirit. "My avocado did not fall too far from the tree," Kachuck acknowledged. He studied music composition and briefly played keyboard — three days in 1976 — with the Pointer Sisters. He then moved to New York to compose music for a girlfriend's dance company until his curiosity about how the brain works led him to neurology. Next came medical school, graduating from USC in 1987. When he got involved in ACA Groves about 15 years ago, his dad was grateful. "For the first time in his life, he was finally sharing the business with somebody," Kachuck said. Before long, though, Israel was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He died in 2021 at 92. Though he'd been addled by the ailment, he understood that his son had managed to preserve the family business. "The saving of the family legacy was a very important obligation I felt," said Kachuck, who added, with a laugh, that he had also hoped the business would ensure his children "had more than just a neurologist's income to support their lifestyles." Kachuck immersed himself in a wide-ranging education in avocados, from their agronomy to the unlikely backstory of their California triumph. Once known as the alligator pear, the avocado traces its history to southern Mexico, where the fruit, according to some experts, was first cultivated about 5,000 years ago. (In Nahuatl, avocado is ahuacatl, sometimes defined as "testicle.") Though it is not native to California, the avocado is arguably as tied to the state's identity as the orange once was. This is thanks to the venerable Hass variety, discovered in the 1920s by a Pasadena mail carrier-turned-grower, Rudolph Hass. His namesake variety accounts for 95% of avocados consumed in the U.S. The proliferation of Mexican and other Latin cuisines cemented the avocado's position as an American staple — largely via guacamole. But the fruit hit some speed bumps on its path to ubiquity. Amid an obsession with low-fat diets in the 1980s, avocados were spurned by many — even though their fats are mostly unsaturated. Enter: the California Avocado Commission, which is overseen by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and whose main responsibility is to market and promote the state's fruit. In the 1990s, the commission — which is funded by an assessment of the gross dollar value of California avocados sold — invested in research to establish the fruit's health efficacy, said avocado farmer Duane Urquhart, a commission board member at the time. Once the avocado's nutritiousness was established, Urquhart said, the commission launched a marketing and education campaign to teach consumers how to use them, even working with cooking schools to develop recipes. "That," he said, "was when we really created the U.S. market for California avocados." Now praised as a superfood, avocados are at turns revered and vilified. Consider the endless disparaging of millennials over their avocado toast. But that hasn't stopped anyone from eating them. The avocado's rise had an unintended consequence: Business interests in Mexico took notice. As inexpensive Mexican avocados flooded the state, many California growers looked to the avocado commission for help. But Kachuck felt its board of directors made major missteps. In late 2020, an agricultural trade attorney advised the commission's board that it could petition the United States International Trade Commission for import relief, which can include tariffs. Such a complaint, the attorney said, could prompt an investigation and have a "chilling effect on foreign competitors," recalled avocado farmer John Cornell, then a board member. But the avocado commission never took action. Writing in the commission's "From the Grove" publication in 2023, the board's then-chairman, Rob Grether, derided what he termed "fanciful fixes for foreign fruit flow." The California avocado industry's retail and food-service partners would oppose such efforts, he wrote. Kachuck was incredulous: "There was so much information about malfeasance in the Mexican avocado industry." Complicating matters were competing interests. Though many California growers complained about Mexican imports, some of their peers had avocado groves or related businesses in Mexico too. Other issues pitted farmers in the north — Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties — against those south in San Diego and Riverside. This all came to a head when Growing Coachella Valley, a nonprofit advocacy group, asked the commission in 2021 to support California legislation that sought to hold imported agriculture to state health and environmental standards. But the commission's board never even voted on whether to support the legislation. According to minutes from a board meeting, a staff member said he and legal counsel determined that AB 710 was not in the commission's "best interest" in part because it would put the group in "a precarious position" with important retailers. Kachuck fumed. In February 2024, he called out the commission's board of directors at its meeting in Oxnard: "You betrayed my trust, that of our avocado growing community, and as well that of the American consumer." The California Avocado Commission did not respond to multiple interview requests; instead, a staff member referred The Times to minutes from its board meetings. Kachuck's comments at the Oxnard meeting galvanized a loose coalition of other unhappy growers, most of them in the San Diego area. They decided to fight the issue through the 2024 board election, with six seats up for grabs on a body composed of 20 members and alternates. Kachuck believed the election presented a realistic opportunity to shake up the commission. He sent out mailers and posted a get-out-the-vote appeal on the website of American Avocado Farmers, a group he and other growers formed last year. But only 14% of eligible voters cast ballots, Kachuck said, and just one of the candidates he and a handful of like-minded farmers had backed was elected. "It's awful," he said. "I'm spending money I don't have — it's borrowed money. At this point I am 80% through my retirement account." Kachuck's failure at the ballot box may stem in part from the geographical divide. In addition to comparatively plentiful and inexpensive water, northern farmers enjoy another advantage: a later summer harvest, which means their fruit is picked after the Mexican crop has inundated the market. The Southern California avocado harvest roughly coincides with that flood. Some farmers wonder if the gulf between the northern and southern poles of the industry is so wide that each region might be better served by having its own commission. Others are gearing up for a different vote: Every five years, the state's food and agriculture department holds a referendum that allows growers to decide whether the commission should continue to serve them. The next one will be held in spring 2026, a department spokesman said. And then there is the big elephant in the boardroom: President Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs. Kachuck pivoted to a new strategy in the meantime: In February, he and three other farmers sued Fresh Del Monte Produce, Calavo Growers and Mission Produce in federal court, alleging they violated the California Business and Professions Code by falsely marketing their avocados as "sustainably and responsibly sourced" when they actually come from Mexican orchards planted on deforested land. Jennifer Church, attorney for the plaintiffs, said that the case "is really about the American public being misled to the detriment of our local farmers." Fresh Del Monte, Calavo and Mission did not respond to requests for comment. But this month the companies filed a joint motion to dismiss the growers' lawsuit, arguing in part that the challenged statements are typical "corporate puffery," a legal term for exaggerated marketing claims that may not be objectively factual but are generally permissible. The fight over California's avocado industry has become Kachuck's focus — to the detriment of other pursuits. There are things he wishes he could work on, like cultivating the Reed avocado, a little-known variety that's about the size and shape of a grapefruit. "It's the most luscious, creamy, large and delicious avocado I've ever tasted," he said. He maintains 50 Reed trees, but doesn't sell the fruit, instead giving it away to friends and family. The Reed, Kachuck said, spoils quickly after being picked, but could be made hardier via genetic intervention, such as cross-breeding. Kachuck was in his element showing off the Reed trees during a visit to ACA Groves, taking obvious pleasure in the ranch's pastoral tableau. He crunched across alluvial soil in scuffed sneakers. A gust of wind turned an avocado tree into a viridescent blur. "I would love to concentrate on making a better avocado for us," Kachuck said. He noted that Reed avocados have something unique going for them: They are not commercially grown in Mexico. At least not yet. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
The iconic California avocado is in trouble, and this farmer is fighting to save it
VALLEY CENTER, Calif. — Norman Kachuck stood on a loamy ridge overlooking his inheritance. Avocado trees blanketed the hillsides of ACA Groves in three directions, just a portion of a 372-acre spread studded with 16,000 specimens, many of them dense with branches weighed down by that quintessential California fruit. The serene San Diego County property felt far from the chaotic epicenter of the global avocado industry in Mexico. Violence, corruption and environmental degradation have saturated the avocado trade there, causing the U.S. to briefly stop imports and senators to agitate for action by the federal government. 'Mexican avocado imports are tainted conflict fruit,' said Kachuck, 70, a former neurologist who heads his family's business. 'The Mexican avocado industry is corrupt and ungoverned — and the American consumer is being deceived.' A deluge of inexpensive avocados from Mexico has imperiled the livelihoods of California growers, Kachuck among them. A quirky and voluble man, Kachuck is on a quest to save the California avocado, taking political and legal action against entrenched interests he sees as an impediment to farmers like him. He calls himself a 'Neuroavocado Warrior.' 'You've got to be an activist, you've got to be proactive and you have to defend your strengths and buttress your weaknesses in everything you do,' said Kachuck, a married father of three adult children. 'Everything has adversarial components to it. But the operative part is making peace.' As recently as the 1990s, the U.S. did not import Mexican avocados. But 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement opened the floodgates: now roughly 90% of the avocados consumed here are imported. And the bulk of that fruit — again, roughly 90% — comes from Mexico, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. At the same time, Southern California farmers must survive in a drought-prone state, and extreme weather brought on by climate change has meant irregular crop yields, among other challenges. Dylan Marschall, a real estate broker who specializes in avocado properties, said the market dynamics are brutally simple: 'Yeah, California has better-quality avocados, but retailers are in the business to make money. And if they can get [better] prices from Mexico, they aren't going to pay for California fruit.' Amid the tumult, Kachuck has battled with the California Avocado Commission, accusing it of insufficiently aiding growers. Now he is bracing for President Trump's trade policies, unsure what they might do to his business. Kachuck said he would welcome a tariff, but pointed out that another major Trump initiative — deporting millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally — could seriously deplete his and other farmers' labor forces. Change can't come soon enough. Kachuck's line of credit is tapped out and he's had to draw hundreds of thousands of dollars from his retirement account to keep the business afloat. Amid the avalanche of foreign fruit, the seasons spanning 2019 through 2023 were 'just awful,' Kachuck said. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified the problems. But he presses on. 'Yeah, I'm taking chances. And I'm stupid enough to not know when quitting is correct,' he said. 'I just have this general sense of optimism — or hubris — that I can figure it out.' Kachuck took over his family's business in 2010, making the long drive to San Diego County from his home in Valley Village. He had just walked away from a career in medicine — he'd practiced as a neurologist at USC for 20 years — to aid his ailing father. Israel Kachuck, a onetime astronautics engineer and general contractor, bought more than 450 acres of mostly barren land in the 1960s and began planting avocado trees. 'He had been a restless soul for as long as I was aware,' Kachuck said. 'lt was part and parcel with what he was doing: moving things around in his brain to accommodate problem solving that was interesting and remunerative.' The son had a similar wandering spirit. 'My avocado did not fall too far from the tree,' Kachuck acknowledged. He studied music composition and briefly played keyboard — three days in 1976 — with the Pointer Sisters. He then moved to New York to compose music for a girlfriend's dance company until his curiosity about how the brain works led him to neurology. Next came medical school, graduating from USC in 1987. When he got involved in ACA Groves about 15 years ago, his dad was grateful. 'For the first time in his life, he was finally sharing the business with somebody,' Kachuck said. Before long, though, Israel was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He died in 2021 at 92. Though he'd been addled by the ailment, he understood that his son had managed to preserve the family business. 'The saving of the family legacy was a very important obligation I felt,' said Kachuck, who added, with a laugh, that he had also hoped the business would ensure his children 'had more than just a neurologist's income to support their lifestyles.' Kachuck immersed himself in a wide-ranging education in avocados, from their agronomy to the unlikely backstory of their California triumph. Once known as the alligator pear, the avocado traces its history to southern Mexico, where the fruit, according to some experts, was first cultivated about 5,000 years ago. (In Nahuatl, avocado is ahuacatl, sometimes defined as 'testicle.') Though it is not native to California, the avocado is arguably as tied to the state's identity as the orange once was. This is thanks to the venerable Hass variety, discovered in the 1920s by a Pasadena mail carrier-turned-grower, Rudolph Hass. His namesake variety accounts for 95% of avocados consumed in the U.S. The proliferation of Mexican and other Latin cuisines cemented the avocado's position as an American staple — largely via guacamole. But the fruit hit some speed bumps on its path to ubiquity. Amid an obsession with low-fat diets in the 1980s, avocados were spurned by many — even though their fats are mostly unsaturated. Enter: the California Avocado Commission, which is overseen by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and whose main responsibility is to market and promote the state's fruit. In the 1990s, the commission — which is funded by an assessment of the gross dollar value of California avocados sold — invested in research to establish the fruit's health efficacy, said avocado farmer Duane Urquhart, a commission board member at the time. Once the avocado's nutritiousness was established, Urquhart said, the commission launched a marketing and education campaign to teach consumers how to use them, even working with cooking schools to develop recipes. 'That,' he said, 'was when we really created the U.S. market for California avocados.' Now praised as a superfood, avocados are at turns revered and vilified. Consider the endless disparaging of millennials over their avocado toast. But that hasn't stopped anyone from eating them. The avocado's rise had an unintended consequence: Business interests in Mexico took notice. As inexpensive Mexican avocados flooded the state, many California growers looked to the avocado commission for help. But Kachuck felt its board of directors made major missteps. In late 2020, an agricultural trade attorney advised the commission's board that it could petition the United States International Trade Commission for import relief, which can include tariffs. Such a complaint, the attorney said, could prompt an investigation and have a 'chilling effect on foreign competitors,' recalled avocado farmer John Cornell, then a board member. But the avocado commission never took action. Writing in the commission's 'From the Grove' publication in 2023, the board's then-chairman, Rob Grether, derided what he termed 'fanciful fixes for foreign fruit flow.' The California avocado industry's retail and food-service partners would oppose such efforts, he wrote. Kachuck was incredulous: 'There was so much information about malfeasance in the Mexican avocado industry.' Complicating matters were competing interests. Though many California growers complained about Mexican imports, some of their peers had avocado groves or related businesses in Mexico too. Other issues pitted farmers in the north — Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura counties — against those south in San Diego and Riverside. This all came to a head when Growing Coachella Valley, a nonprofit advocacy group, asked the commission in 2021 to support California legislation that sought to hold imported agriculture to state health and environmental standards. But the commission's board never even voted on whether to support the legislation. According to minutes from a board meeting, a staff member said he and legal counsel determined that AB 710 was not in the commission's 'best interest' in part because it would put the group in 'a precarious position' with important retailers. Kachuck fumed. In February 2024, he called out the commission's board of directors at its meeting in Oxnard: 'You betrayed my trust, that of our avocado growing community, and as well that of the American consumer.' The California Avocado Commission did not respond to multiple interview requests; instead, a staff member referred The Times to minutes from its board meetings. Kachuck's comments at the Oxnard meeting galvanized a loose coalition of other unhappy growers, most of them in the San Diego area. They decided to fight the issue through the 2024 board election, with six seats up for grabs on a body composed of 20 members and alternates. Kachuck believed the election presented a realistic opportunity to shake up the commission. He sent out mailers and posted a get-out-the-vote appeal on the website of American Avocado Farmers, a group he and other growers formed last year. But only 14% of eligible voters cast ballots, Kachuck said, and just one of the candidates he and a handful of like-minded farmers had backed was elected. 'It's awful,' he said. 'I'm spending money I don't have — it's borrowed money. At this point I am 80% through my retirement account.' Kachuck's failure at the ballot box may stem in part from the geographical divide. In addition to comparatively plentiful and inexpensive water, northern farmers enjoy another advantage: a later summer harvest, which means their fruit is picked after the Mexican crop has inundated the market. The Southern California avocado harvest roughly coincides with that flood. Some farmers wonder if the gulf between the northern and southern poles of the industry is so wide that each region might be better served by having its own commission. Others are gearing up for a different vote: Every five years, the state's food and agriculture department holds a referendum that allows growers to decide whether the commission should continue to serve them. The next one will be held in spring 2026, a department spokesman said. And then there is the big elephant in the boardroom: President Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs. Kachuck pivoted to a new strategy in the meantime: In February, he and three other farmers sued Fresh Del Monte Produce, Calavo Growers and Mission Produce in federal court, alleging they violated the California Business and Professions Code by falsely marketing their avocados as 'sustainably and responsibly sourced' when they actually come from Mexican orchards planted on deforested land. Jennifer Church, attorney for the plaintiffs, said that the case 'is really about the American public being misled to the detriment of our local farmers.' Fresh Del Monte, Calavo and Mission did not respond to requests for comment. But this month the companies filed a joint motion to dismiss the growers' lawsuit, arguing in part that the challenged statements are typical 'corporate puffery,' a legal term for exaggerated marketing claims that may not be objectively factual but are generally permissible. The fight over California's avocado industry has become Kachuck's focus — to the detriment of other pursuits. There are things he wishes he could work on, like cultivating the Reed avocado, a little-known variety that's about the size and shape of a grapefruit. 'It's the most luscious, creamy, large and delicious avocado I've ever tasted,' he said. He maintains 50 Reed trees, but doesn't sell the fruit, instead giving it away to friends and family. The Reed, Kachuck said, spoils quickly after being picked, but could be made hardier via genetic intervention, such as cross-breeding. Kachuck was in his element showing off the Reed trees during a visit to ACA Groves, taking obvious pleasure in the ranch's pastoral tableau. He crunched across alluvial soil in scuffed sneakers. A gust of wind turned an avocado tree into a viridescent blur. 'I would love to concentrate on making a better avocado for us,' Kachuck said. He noted that Reed avocados have something unique going for them: They are not commercially grown in Mexico. At least not yet.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
California officials seek help from Trump amid threat to avocado crops
GILROY, Calif. - State officials are in the uncomfortable position of asking for help from the Trump administration. This, after a possible infestation in Mexico, is affecting a popular fruit that's exported to this country. With winter in the rearview mirror, California avocados are moving to the forefront on store shelves across the Bay and state. "Avocados are one of the biggest items that we sell here," said Jesus Beltran, a produce manager at the Zanotto's grocery store in the Willow Glen section of San Jose. "Probably 80% of the production we get out through the store." In September 2024, a long-standing agreement between the U.S. and Mexico which allowed American inspectors to check products on the other side of the border, was shelved after violence by alleged cartel members that targeted the inspectors, led then-President Joe Biden to pull back from the agreement. The president of the California Avocado Commission said that decision has led to a problem. "From January of last year until October, there were zero pest detection…then we've had over 150 pest detections since then of the very pests we're concerned about," said Ken Melban. That pest is the seed weevil, which is native to Mexico and considered one of the most damaging bugs in avocado cultivation. "It'll get inside the fruit. It'll live in there, and then it'll decide to come out," said Melban. "Or, worst-case scenario, if that piece of fruit makes it to point-of-sale and a consumer buys it, now you have a consumer opening a piece of fruit that has a weevil in it." The concern is that a possible infestation on one side of the border could spell catastrophe on the other, crippling the avocado supply and souring growers' profits. "If the (seed) weevils (are) coming through, what other kinds of invasive pests are coming through that could be detrimental to Santa Clara County's agriculture?" – Drew Raymond, Interim County Agriculture Commissioner The state's Avocado Commission is appealing to the Trump administration to re-institute American inspectors in Mexico to thwart the perceived threat. "If the weevils (are) coming through, what other kinds of invasive pests are coming through that could be detrimental to Santa Clara County's agriculture," said Drew Raymond, the interim commissioner of the Santa Clara County Department of Agriculture. He said the county deploys dog teams to screen imports for threats. But there's always a risk one bug could sneak through, leading to a problem in the South Bay and beyond. "Obviously, if we can nip it in the bud, if we can find those pests where they're coming from at the very beginning, that would be better than trying to exclude them at our border at our county line." There's no word as yet on whether the Trump administration will put inspectors back in Mexico. Much of it depends on security and if the inspectors can be kept safe. Jesse Gary is a reporter based in the station's South Bay bureau. Follow him on the Instagram platform, @jessegontv and on Facebook, @JesseKTVU.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
California avocados at risk due to lack of USDA inspectors, report says
The California Avocado Commission (CAC) released a report Tuesday that indicates state-grown avocados may be severely at risk due to a 2024 Biden administration move that withdrew U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors from Mexican orchards. 'This move, made in response to cartel violence, shifted critical U.S. agricultural oversight to foreign control, undermining decades of bipartisan efforts to protect U.S. agriculture,' the CAC said in a press release. The report, titled 'The Growing Threat to California Avocados: Why USDA Must Reinstate Inspection Protocols in Mexico,' states that in 1997, CAC officials and their federal counterparts negotiated an agreement with the Mexican government that allowed the importation of fresh Hass avocados into the United States. The agreement lifted a ban that had been in place since 1914 to prevent a range of pests from entering American orchards. LADWP says substance causing 'earthy odor' in drinking water is not harmful According to the report, the choice to remove USDA's physical presence from Mexican avocado orchards in 2024 was made without public announcement, congressional notification or input from American avocado growers. In fact, the CAC claimed that they themselves learned of the decision, which they say is 'a breach of [the 1997] agreement,' through foreign media outlets. 'This system worked for nearly three decades…[and] functioned with exceptional effectiveness, keeping invasive pests like seed weevils and fruit-boring moths out of California [while] maintaining the state's pristine pest-free certification,' the report reads. 'With no need for chemical interventions against these exotic pests, growers benefited from lower production costs, clean environmental compliance and the ability to export to countries with strict phytosanitary barriers.' 'Mexican inspections alone cannot be trusted to meet the phytosanitary standards the U.S. has long required,' the report continues. 'As a result, fruit carrying dangerous pests is now being certified and shipped with reduced oversight, increasing the probability of pest introduction into California's avocado-growing regions.' Since the pests have never established themselves in California (which CAC says is thanks to nearly three decades of strict pre-export enforcement by the USDA), the state's avocado industry, which is a '$1.5 billion economic engine' that supports more than 3,000 family-owned farms, is 'fundamentally different' from global competitors because of its cleanliness standards. California itself is one of the last remaining major avocado-producing regions in the world that remains free of the crop's main pests — avocado seed weevils and fruit-feeding moths – which allows local growers to thrive with 'minimal chemical intervention, high export viability and strong consumer confidence,' according to the report. Unhealthy air quality predicted for parts of SoCal 'If [these pests] gain a foothold in California orchards, the result would be devastating – biologically, economically and environmentally,' the report says. According to agriculture officials, the pests may have already started making their way into California; since inspectors were withdrawn, more than 150 pest interceptions were reported between Oct. 30, 2024, and Mar. 11, 2025, the CAC report states. USDA data cited in the report indicates that between Jan. 1 and Oct. 17, 2024, there were no pest interceptions in Mexican warehouses. Overall, the CAC says that the main solution to the problem is to reinstate inspection protocols in Mexico as per the 1997 agreement. Keeping in mind inspector safety, CAC recommends that security personnel be deployed and inspectors stationed in secure convoys, especially in high-risk regions like the Mexican state of Michoacán, where most avocados are grown. Additionally, CAC wants direct engagement from the Trump administration to ensure that 'criminal cartels [don't] dictate the terms of our food safety' and the ability to suspend Mexican imports if conditions are not met. According to the report, 80% of Mexico's avocado imports come to the U.S. Hannah Kobayashi breaks silence on disappearance, father's death Lastly, the CAC wants to spread public awareness of the issue as not just an agricultural problem, but a national security concern. 'The threat facing California's avocado industry is not theoretical, it is happening now. Since the withdrawal of USDA inspectors from Mexico in late 2024, dangerous avocado seed pests have been repeatedly detected in Mexican orchards and packinghouses,' the report concludes. 'These pests, long excluded by strict inspection protocols, now pose a growing risk of crossing into California's pest-free growing regions…Once established, they cannot be eradicated, [and] the consequences would be severe: billions in economic losses, the collapse of generational family farms, and the loss of one of America's most successful, clean, and sustainable agricultural commodities.' 'This crisis was preventable,' the report's conclusion adds. 'It is still reversible.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CA commission urges Trump administration to take action to protect avocado orchards
The California Avocado Commission (CAC) is urging the Trump administration to take actions to help protect the Golden State's avocado industry from insect pests in Mexico. In a new report, the trade association issued a series of recommendations that it thinks the Trump administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) should take up to keep pests in Mexico from seriously hurting California's billion-dollar avocado industry. Chief among the recommendations was returning to the original USDA inspection protocols that it used to have for Mexican avocado and avocado farms under a 1997 operational work plan, particularly having USDA inspectors in the groves. In September 2024, the Biden administration decided to end a USDA program called the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service specifically in the context of inspecting farms in Mexico to ensure that avocados exported to the U.S. did not also include pests that could disrupt U.S. agriculture. The policy change came after criminals in Mexico reportedly assaulted and threatened the inspectors in recent years. Love Avocados? Biden Admin Caving To Mexican Cartels Could Have Devastating Impact On Wildly Popular Fruit Instead, Mexico was charged with ensuring avocados sent across the border were free of harmful pests, such as seed and stem weevils and seed moths. Read On The Fox Business App The CAC said in its report that there has been a "dramatic surge" in avocado pest interceptions at Mexican packinghouses since late October. USDA inspectors at Mexican packing houses detected harmful pests in more than 150 different "interceptions" between Oct. 30, 2024, and March 11 this year, compared to none between Jan. 1 and Oct. 17 last year, the CAC said, citing USDA data. This indicates a "systemic breakdown in pest control" and necessitates action from the U.S. government, according to the CAC. "These pests pose a catastrophic risk to California's pest-free orchards," the trade association said in its report. "Once established, they are virtually impossible to eradicate, forcing growers into costly and environmentally regressive pesticide use, threatening international trade access, and rendering fruit unmarketable." In addition to advocating for the U.S. government to "restore full USDA oversight of orchard and packinghouse inspections" in Mexico, the CAC recommended the Trump administration implement security to protect USDA avocado inspectors in the country in collaboration with the Mexican authorities. It said the government should "consider stationing inspectors in secure convoys, rotating staff in high-risk regions, or establishing temporary secure inspection zones" and not allow Mexican avocado exports into the U.S. if the neighboring country "cannot ensure safety for U.S. personnel." The CAC recommended that the federal government should also communicate to Mexico that avocados from Mexican orchards and packinghouses cannot come into the U.S. if USDA inspectors can't inspect the sites they come from. Gavin Newsom Wants Almonds, Other Exports Exempt From Tariff Retaliation FOX Business reached out to the USDA for comment. The U.S. receives roughly 80% of the avocados that Mexico exports, making it a major supplier of the fruit for America, according to a USDA report. In 2024, Mexican avocados made up 88% of total U.S. avocado imports. California's avocado industry is worth $1.5 billion, according to the CAC. It produced more than 363.6 million pounds of the fruit during the 2023-2024 season. Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this article source: CA commission urges Trump administration to take action to protect avocado orchards
