The US has temporarily suspended Mexican avocado imports after an American official received a threatening phone call

• The US suspended Mexican avocado imports after an American official received a threatening call.
• The US plant-safety inspector was working in the major avocado-growing region of Michoacán.

The US temporarily suspended Mexican avocado imports after a US plant-safety inspector received a threatening phone call.

In an announcement on Saturday, Mexico's agriculture ministry said the halt in shipments affected avocados from the major growing region of Michoacán.

US health authorities "made the decision after one of their officials, who was carrying out inspections in Uruapan, Michoacan, received a threatening message on his official cellphone," the ministry said, according to an Associated Press translation of the announcement.

US inspectors from the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services inspect the fruits in Mexico to ensure the shipments that reach the US don't carry diseases that could affect American avocado crops, according to the AP.

The Mexican agriculture ministry said the USDA was assessing the security threat, according to Bloomberg.

Michoacán has been dealing with gang violence, according to the AP and Reuters. The USDA did not immediately reply to Insider's request for comment.

The import suspension came as avocado prices hit record highs in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl on Sunday, when consumption surges. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the price spike was due to an increase in production costs, a labor crunch, and a supply-chain logjam. A recent USDA report indicated that avocado prices at US supermarkets were up about 60% from a year ago, the logistics trade publication FreightWaves reported over the weekend.

The USDA said in October that Mexico's avocado production was expected to be 8% lower than it was over the previous year.

Mexico exported almost $3 billion worth of avocados in 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, according to Statista. The data provider indicated that about 80% of Mexico's avocado shipments went to the US in 2020.