Millennials are no longer in distress as the U.S. has once again allowed the import of Mexican Avocados as of Feb. 18. 

The initial ban was announced on Feb. 12 after a call to a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspector was threatened by voicemail while in Michoacan, Mexico. 

The USDA worker had been concerned over what looked like “suspicious crops.” The Washington Post reported that these crops were possibly being brought in from another Mexican state, not grown in Michoacan, and sold as if they were. 

The state of Michoacan is widely known for having areas that fall under the control of cartels. Many farmers and ranchers have to do their business under the eyes of these cartels. 

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced in their statement, “Mexico and the United States will continue working together to fortify the strong bilateral supply chains that promote economic growth and prosperity in both countries.”

Avocados have gone beyond a food trend among hipsters and bloggers. They are an international empire. 

During the U.S.’s winter crop season, Mexico thrives, they recorded in the “2020/2021 season imports at 2.4 billion pounds of avocados,” as reported by the Cision PR Newswire.

However, California is the top avocado-producing state. In 2020 over 188,000 tons of avocados came out of California, as reported by Statista.

Florida is the next state with the largest avocado production. However, their exports reach just below 10% of California’s production in the same year.

Production for avocados is believed to spike back up. The Haas Avocado Board estimated over 61,000,000 lbs. of their fruit by week nine of the year (Feb. 20) in comparison to their actual production of over 24,000,000 lbs. in week seven (Mar. 6).