Jalisco, Mexico - Although the announcement was made last May that the USDA had approved shipments of avocados from Jalisco, it will take another six to eight months for the export of avocados to begin, the president of the Agricultural Council of Jalisco (CAJ), Jacobo Cabrera Palos, recently reported.

In addition to the need to prepare the Operational Work Plan between the two countries, the delay is due to the lack of certifications of the export companies, according to the president of the CAJ.

Cabrera Palos said that of the 350 avocado exporting companies that have the Immex certification, only seven are from Jalisco, and this is without taking into account the certifications required by the United States.

Last August, El Economista published a statement from the President of the Association of Producers and Exporters of Avocados from Jalisco (Apeajal), Ignacio Gómez, who warned that it would still take "several months" for the first shipments from Jalisco to be made, due to an Operational Work plan that defined the agreements between Mexico and the United States in "fine print."

However, both the state and federal governments denied that possibility and said it was just "a matter of days" before the first shipment departed.

After these optimistic official forecasts were not met, the head of the state's Secretariat of Rural Development (Seder), Héctor Padilla Gutiérrez, acknowledged that the process was in the stage of compliance with the protocols, but admitted that the presidential elections in the United States could delay the shipments.

Currently, avocados produced in Jalisco are exported to twenty countries, including Japan, Canada and several in the European Union.

In 2013, 18.000 tonnes of avocados were exported, while in 2015 this figure reached 50,000 tonnes, according to Apeajal.