President Donald Trump has been threatening to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, and if he goes through with it, there's going to be a lot of unhappy people both sides of the border. As Reutersreports, a good chunk of imported U.S. vegetables and fruit are grown in Mexico, and the head of one of the largest distributors and growers of avocados in the world has warned that there could be an avocado shortage within weeks.
"You couldn’t pick a worse time of year because Mexico supplies virtually 100 percent of the avocados in the U.S. right now," said president and chief executive of Mission produce Steve Barnard. "California is just starting and they have a very small crop, but they’re not relevant right now and won’t be for another month or so."
"We would be out of business for a while," he added.
On Friday, Trump said there was a "very good likelihood" that he'll close the border if Mexico doesn't do something about immigrants crossing over into the States. The complete shutdown he's purposing will impact billions of dollars in trade, most of which would be food imports.
"When a border is closed or barriers to trade are put in place, I absolutely expect there would be an impact on consumers," said Latin American agricultural issues and trade consultant Monica Ganley. "We’re absolutely going to see higher prices. This is a very real and very relevant concern for American consumers."
