Mexico’s new free trade agreement with Peru could threaten the country’s multi-million dollar avocado export business and risk introducing pests and diseases into Mexico that producers have spent years and substantial amounts eradicating.
This is the view of the Association of Michoacán Avocado Producers, Packers and Exporters (APEAM) who told regional daily El Cambio de Michoacán that production with an annual value of over US$1,000m had been put at risk by the trade accord.
In particular, APEAM and other producers warned that avocado production in Mexico’s western Michoacán region, the only area that exports avocados to the US, would be placed under threat by the deal, both in terms of exports and in the national market.
Campaigners claimed the entry of Peruvian avocados would cause a collapse in prices in the Mexican market and argued imports would also reintroduce pests, including Mediterranean fruit fly, that have been eradicated by Michoacán’s avocado sector at great cost and over many years.
The threat of the possible reintroduction of a number of eradicated pests and diseases, APEAM argued, would put at risk Mexico’s hard fought US market entry for avocados, which only took place in 1997 after decades of negotiations.
The association added that other Mexican exports have also been “put at risk” by the Peruvian agreement, including mangoes, bananas, citrus, garlic, potatoes and grapes.
