Fears are growing over the future of iconic Mexican products including avocados and tequila after Donald Trump’s threats to pose 25 per cent tariffs. The warnings have sparked concern, particularly in the western state of Michoacán, where avocados are the economic backbone.
![[Workers sort avocados at a packing plant in Uruapan, Mexico]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/11/28/16/Mexico_US_Tariffs_04756.jpg)
Growers like Enrique Espinoza worry that increased prices will deter US consumers from buying guacamole, impacting demand and threatening the region's economy. "I think that when there is an increase in the price for any product, demand declines,” Espinoza said.
![[A farmhand harvests avocados]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/11/28/16/Mexico_US_Tariffs_76204.jpg)
The timing of the threatened tariffs, coinciding with Mexico's peak avocado export season for the Super Bowl, further exacerbates these concerns. José Luis Arroyo Sandoval, a manager at an avocado packing house in Michoacan, says the economy would be affected.
“Work for us could decrease because it won't be quite so attractive to export," Arroyo said, “because avocados would get expensive, and avocados are already expensive.”. It may not just be Mexican producers who are affected; U.S. consumers may also be howling.
Mexican business leader Gina Diez Barroso told a news conference Tuesday that one U.S. agriculture official told her he had never had as many complaints as when the U.S. government halted import inspections on Mexican avocados in 2022. “Never in his life had he had so much chaos in his office, because they halted Mexican avocados,” Diez Barroso said.
.png?auto=webp&width=800)
