new advocacy video Thursday<\/a> calling for a seasonal tariff-rate quota on Mexican avocado imports during California’s peak harvest season, which runs from March through September.<\/p>\nThe proposal comes as the United States reviews the future of the United States, Mexico, and Canada Agreement, and prepares for another round of trade talks with Mexico later this month.<\/p>\n
Commission President Ken Melban said growers are facing rising production costs while receiving significantly less for their crop than they did a year ago.<\/p>\n
Growers, for example, this year are seeing 50 cents on the dollar compared to last year,” <\/p>\n
Melban told FOX26.<\/p>\n
“They’re just asking that the government step in and create some market balance.”<\/p>\n
Under the commission’s proposal, a set volume of Mexican avocados could continue entering the United States tariff-free during California’s harvest season. Imports above that threshold would face higher tariffs.<\/p>\n
Melban said the proposal is not intended to stop trade with Mexico, but to help California growers compete during the months when their fruit is harvested.<\/p>\n
“We’re not looking for a handout,” one grower says in the commission’s video. “We’re looking for a chance to compete.”<\/p>\n
The commission says Mexico now supplies roughly 85% of the avocados consumed in the United States. It argues that large volumes of imported fruit, combined with lower labor and production costs in competing countries, have made it increasingly difficult for California growers to remain profitable.<\/p>\n
The video also raises concerns about cartel violence affecting parts of Mexico’s avocado industry, the potential for invasive pests entering the United States through imported fruit and differences in labor and environmental standards between the two countries.<\/p>\n
California is home to about 3,000 avocado growers who contribute more than $1.5 billion annually to the state’s economy, according to the commission.<\/p>\n
The commission’s campaign also features California farmers, celebrity chef Andrew Gruel and Rep. Vince Fong, R-Calif., who is calling for trade policies that give domestic growers a better opportunity to compete.<\/p>\n
FOX26 reached out to Avocados From Mexico for comment but has not yet received a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 California avocado growers are pushing for trade changes, saying imports from Mexico are making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-384708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}