{"id":388824,"date":"2026-07-07T04:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T04:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/388824\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T04:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T04:22:10","slug":"california-avocado-farmers-issue-dire-warning-as-competition-from-mexico-ramps-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/388824\/","title":{"rendered":"California avocado farmers issue dire warning as competition from Mexico ramps up"},"content":{"rendered":"

California farmers<\/a> are calling on the Trump administration to adopt a \u201csubstantive\u201d seasonal tariff rate on Mexican avocado imports to help save an industry that growers warn is struggling to survive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the trend continues the way it\u2019s going, I mean, we\u2019ve been having some pretty difficult conversations,\u201d said Andy Sheaffer, who owns Vista Punta Gorda farms in Ventura, California. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really difficult to operate when you have such volatility and then when the volatility shifts to really a negative return.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Andy Sheaffer, who owns Vista Punta Gorda farms in Ventura, California, told the Post avocado farmers are struggling to compete with Mexico. California Avocado Commission<\/p>\n

Sheaffer, who has been farming for the past 20 years, said prices have recently plummeted for growers <\/a>due to the influx of avocados from Mexico that have flooded the US market without any real regulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started out [last year May 2025] over $2 per pound, I think it was $2.20 to $2.30 a pound,\u201d Sheaffer told The California Post, who is now selling those same avocados for $0.75 cents to $1.10. \u201cIt just fell off a cliff in the latter part of the season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sheaffer said labor costs and regulatory burdens are hampering local growers from competing with Mexico. California Avocado Commission<\/p>\n

Ken Melban, president of the California Avocado Commission, told The Post that 10 years ago the state had roughly 6,000 growers, now that number has dropped to about 3,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The problem is a multitude of factors including high labor costs and water regulations that make it hard for US growers to compete with Mexico, which currently pays zero tariffs on avocados under the USMCA agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve elected these politicians who have decided to impose these regulations and these labor cost increases on us because they value that as an important component,\u201d Sheaffer said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut then, on the flip side, we\u2019re allowing these countries who don\u2019t have that same value system basically unfettered access to our market.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mexico represents about 85% of the US avocado market. California Avocado Commission<\/p>\n

The California Avocado Commission is asking federal trade officials to adopt a seasonal tariff policy to level the playing field. California Avocado Commission<\/p>\n

Sheaffer told The Post he pays over $20 per hour for permanent farm labor, while workers in Mexico he said earn around $12 per day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMexico, by the first quarter of this year had brought in excess above their projection $300 million pounds,\u201d Melban said. \u201cWhich is equal to almost our entire season production.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the US announcing it would not extend its historic trade agreement<\/a> signed by President Trump during his first term, the Commission sees an opportunity to voice its concerns for an industry that needs protections in order to survive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cheap labor and the ability to grow avocados year-round has led to a problematic situation for local growers.\u00a0 California Avocado Commission<\/p>\n

The commission is asking federal officials to impose a seasonal Tariff Rate Quota on Mexico avocado imports between March and September, the primary harvest window for California. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe details would have to be zero tariff on the first X amount of pounds coming in,\u201d Melban said, noting that while the details still need to be ironed out it would be a \u201csubstantial tariff\u201d on anything above a certain amount of pounds. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Sheaffer told the Post he pays over $20 per hour for permanent farm labor, while workers in Mexico he said earn around $12 per day.\u00a0 California Avocado Commission<\/p>\n

\u201cMinimum 25 percent. I\u2019d like to see 50 percent, because if not, then it just gets included in the cost of doing business across the board,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Critics argue imposing tariffs would drive the cost up for consumers, something both Melban and Sheaffer have disputed \u2014 claiming while the price for farmers have dropped roughly 50% the point of sale at the grocery store has stayed relatively the same. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cost to the consumer won\u2019t go up exorbitantly, just the grocer will not have as high a margin on that particular piece of produce,\u201d Sheaffer told the Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

US trade representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer said he will meet with Mexico starting the week of July 20 for a third round of bilateral negations related to the USMCA \u2014 in the meantime, the pact remains fully in place as conversations between the three countries continue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Melban, he is optimistic that the Trump administration will make an effort to protect American farmers.<\/p>\n

I just had a meeting last Tuesday with senior U.S. officials that are all over this,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m hopeful that we\u2019ll be able to figure something out here that works for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California farmers are calling on the Trump administration to adopt a \u201csubstantive\u201d seasonal tariff rate on Mexican avocado…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1955,156697,7,9,8,53337,4182,3429,1519,3586],"class_list":["post-388824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-agriculture","tag-avocados","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-farming","tag-metro","tag-tariffs","tag-trump","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388824","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=388824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}