Avocado Growers End Strike, Mission Produce's Patrick Cortes and Denise Junqueiro Comment
MICHOACÁN, MEXICO - After much back-and-forth in local and national news, it seems a recent avocado strike in Mexico has ended. Brian Denton of Colorful Plates Podcast, powered by Pro*Act, recently hosted an interview on the situation.
Patrick Cortes, Senior Director of Business Development at Mission Produce, discussed the latest in the Nov. 12 interview.
“A group of growers in Mexico, in the Michoacán area where a majority of the avocados are harvested, bound together because they were concerned about what they felt were unfair prices to be paid for their avocados. As a result they basically said ‘until we feel there are more just prices being paid for the fruit’ that they were going to go on strike and not harvest,” Cortes explained.
He discussed how avocados are a unique commodity in that they can stay and wait on the trees much longer than other fruits, meaning harvesters had time to wait out a satisfying resolution without losing too much fruit. Cortes confirmed there had been many meetings from both sides in an effort to understand grievances and come to an agreement.
It was the next day, November 13, that things looked up for the supply-side as an apparent end came to the stalemate.
“Mexico started harvesting this morning,” Denise Junqueiro, Director of Marketing for Mission, shared with ANUK late yesterday. “We anticipate it will take a couple of weeks to get industry supplies back up to normal in the marketplace and even a little longer for the market to experience adequate ripe volumes. Regardless, we are please harvest has resumed and the industry found resolution.”
The timing of the resolution came as avocados in the supply chain were dwindling. In the interview, Cortes states that what was left would be gone within the next week.
You can listen to the interview in its entirety, as well as Gabe Romero of PRO*ACT, and Patrick DeYoung of Field Fresh Farms sharing how operations moving to Huron, CA, and eventually Yuma, AZ, during the winter affects supply and quality, here.
