NAFTA drives US’ avocado boom

WASHINGTON: Love it or loathe it, US’ avocado craze shows no sign of fizzling out, but fans of the Mexican staple may not realise they can thank the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA) trade deal for ensuring its bountiful supply.

In a little over two decades, American store shelves have been transformed as mounds of avocados, mangos, papayas and peppers stamped ‘Mexico’ flooded over the border.

The year-round profusion of fresh fruits and vegetables is directly attributable to the NAFTA, which the US, Canada and Mexico are renegotiating at the demand of President Donald Trump who dubbed it the “worst deal ever”.

“I’m 49 years old and remember when I was little asking my mother in winter ‘Where are the strawberries?’ and my mother would say ‘ It is out of season,’” says Jaime Chamberlain, who runs JC Distributing, a family business that imports fruit and vegetables from Mexico.

Thanks to the 1994 trade deal, there is now a whole new generation of Americans who will never know such seasonal hardship.

While NAFTA was never intended as a vehicle to change the American diet, Steven Zahniser, economist and researcher at the US Agriculture Department ( USDA), sees a correlation between the agreement and Americans eating more fresh fruits and vegetables.

Chamberlain notes that before the trade deal took effect in 1994, import duties on fresh produce were ‘astronomical’.

Melons were taxed at 30 per cent, tomatoes at around 20 per cent.

Pre-NAFTA conditions made it difficult to export to the US market, and for consumers to find fresh produce that was both varied and affordable.

Only three or four Mexican states were exporting to the US before the deal.

Today, all the states send their fresh produce to their neighbour, said Chamberlain, who took over the reins of the company in 1987.