Steve Barnard, chief executive of Mission Produce, the world’s largest distributor and grower of avocados, told Reuters that Americans would run out of the green fruit in three weeks if their imports from Mexico stopped.
“You couldn’t pick a worse time of year because Mexico supplies virtually 100 per cent of the avocados in the US right now. 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”, Barnard warned.
READ MORE: Mexico Won't Act Based on Trump Threats to Close Border — Foreign Minister
The remarks came a few days after US President Donald Trump pledged that he would close the Mexican border to "all trade" if the US neighbour did not stop migrant caravans from reaching his country.
Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard responded by saying that Mexico “does not act on the basis of threats”.
READ MORE: Trump Says US to Build 'Human Wall' on Mexico Border if Necessary
Most Twitter users have, meanwhile, expressed dismay about the avocado-related prediction, with one netizen wondering “what the hell am I supposed to put on my toast?”
Another user sarcastically wrote that “Trump doesn’t know what an avocado looks like [because] McD’s doesn’t use them”, commenting on the US president’s alleged appetite for fast food.
Other netizens struck the same tone, claiming that the looming shortage of avocados is a “reason enough for uprising” and that “perhaps Trump wants to kill Americans through starvation”.
Forbes, in turn, claimed that Americans should not worry too much about running out of avocados because the US also gets them from California, Peru and Florida.
At the same time, the magazine added that “one problem this year is that a heat wave in 2018 damaged the California avocado crop”.