California grows the most avocados in the country. But Thursday marks the first time in almost a century that avocados grown in Mexico can be imported into the state, and that worries domestic avocado farmers.
MADELEINE BRAND, host: From NPR News, this is DAY TO DAY.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: We here in California love our avocados - so much so, we don't let any else's in. Ninety percent of the nation's crop is grown here. And even though other parts of the country can sample avocados from other places, not so here in California.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Well, that changes today. Avocados from Mexico will be available in California for the first time in nearly a century. And as NPR's Ki-Min Sung reports, that competition is making local farmers nervous.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: Mike Hillabreath(ph) inspects the exterior of this 20-acre avocado orchard near San Diego. The ground is covered with dead leaves - remnants of the recent freeze that ruined some of his crops.</s>Mr. MIKE HILLABREATH (Avocado Grower): When you look at the stems, they're turning brown. This should be, you know, green. When you look at the blooms here, they should be nice and light-green color and they're brown. They're crispy. See there? So they're dead.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: Mother Nature isn't Hillabreath's only problem this season. He is one of 6,000 California growers who are now facing competition from Mexican avocados. That will mean cheaper avocados for American consumers, but for farmers…</s>Mr. MIKE HILLABREATH (Avocado Grower): You cost going up, and your price is going down. And I'm not going to use up all my savings to keep it floating and then be broke. I mean, you're going hit some place when we can't make it get going anymore and you've got to stop.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: Opening the California market is a boon for Mexico. That nation grows five times the avocados of California and can produce them year round.</s>Mr. ERIC RAMOS (Avocado Grower): In Mexico, they have the perfect condition where they - the soil is very rich in nutrients and it's easier to maintain.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: That's Eric Ramos. He grows avocados in Mexico.</s>Mr. ERIC RAMOS (Avocado Grower): It's very green, and you'll see avocados everywhere, even when you step outside the international airport.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: Ramos expects his business to boom - not just because of the new trade policy, but because it's 30 percent of California's avocado crop was ruined by the bad weather - something Mexico hasn't had to deal with.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: This change in fortune for the Mexican growers has been a long time in the making. The U.S. banned the import of that nation's crop in 1914 when a seed weevil was reportedly found on an imported Mexican avocado. Some growers still doubt the seed weevil scare.</s>Mr. ERIC RAMOS (Avocado Grower): It's a myth that was created to prevent Mexican avocados to get into the United States. And it has all been political.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: But the politics of trade can change. About eight decades after the ban came the North American Free Trade Agreement. It initiated a new policy that allowed for a limited Mexican avocado imports beginning in 1997. Avocado-rich California is one of the last states to let them in.</s>Mr. SCOTT MCINTYRE (Chairman, California Avocado Commission): Mexican avocados into California is like they won the Alamo. It is bigger than you and I can ever imagine.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: That's Scott McIntyre, chairman of the California Avocado Commission. He says business may get tougher for local avocado growers, but there is still untapped domestic markets. So far, most avocado lovers live in Western and Southwestern states, and that leaves a lot of territory.</s>Mr. SCOTT MCINTYRE (Chairman, California Avocado Commission): So there's still - the whole East Coast hasn't eaten an avocado yet. Together, we can increase consumption.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: But that doesn't comfort farmer Mike Hillabreath, or his 74-year-old father, Ben. Ben says the added competition for Mexico and the rising costs of water, labor and land have changed the agricultural landscape.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: It's made them take a hard look at the land four generations of his family and countless avocados were raised on.</s>Mr. MIKE HILLABREATH (Avocado Grower): I think it can be devastating, and I think the Mexicans can do that with our importing of avocados that if they really flush them in here - and not just this year, but all the future years - we're going to quit.</s>KI-MIN SUNG: For NPR News, I'm Ki-Min Sung.