President Trump has threatened to shut down the southern border.  This would prohibit truck shipments from entering the U.S.  You know one of the major concerns with this, there will be no avocados.  My first thought was "You have got to be kidding me, people are putting the availability of avocados above security concerns?".  For this article, I'm going to leave the discussion of a lack of priorities off the table.  But if you dig a little deeper you can see how big this lie really is.

Mexico is the largest exporter of avocados at $2.9 billion worth of exported avocados in 2017.    The majority of which come to the United States.  The U.S. is the largest net importer of avocados, importing about $2.6 billion worth of avocados more than we export.  In the U.S. we actually grow avocados but we import 86% of the avocados consumed, with Mexico supplying 88% of the imported avocados.  The U.S. is actually the sixth largest exporter of avocados, exporting $152.2 million in avocados in 2017.  With all this said, you may be thinking we are still not getting a lot of avocados.

You may be worried that there may be people out there just trying to make extra money hyping this shortage of avocados.  I don't blame you.  What we have in the avocado industry is a true monopoly if there ever was one.  The Hass Avocado Board imports 95% of the avocados consumed in the U.S.  With the scare of the looming outage of avocados, the wholesale price has spiked 44%.  I think there will be some handsome bonuses floating around the Hass Avocado Board this year.

Here's the big lie.  Closing the southern border doesn't close shipping docks along the coast.  It's ridiculous to think just because avocados can't be trucked into the States that suppliers are going to let their stock rot in the fields.  Their going to put them on boats.  There may be a slight interruption while new shipping routes are established, but we will still have fresh avocados.

Let's say Mexico decides to stop sending us avocados, which I can't imagine would ever happen.  There are other countries trying to grow their exports of avocados.  These countries and the percent increase in avocado exports include Peru (+215.3%), Chile (+183.2%), Dominican Republic (+152.9%), and Brazil (+41.9%).  We simply import avocados through the docks and ship them across the country.

Some may say this is completely different and may never work.  Believe it or not the second largest exporter of avocados in 2017 was the Netherlands.  How many avocados do you think were grown in the Netherlands?    Would anyone guess zero?  They would be right.  The Netherlands imports avocados for domestic use and exportation to the rest of Europe.  Capitalism works well with the value of the exports minus the value of the imports and minus the domestic sales leaves the Netherlands with $83.5 million.

By the way, this logic works with anything else you may be told you would be missing if Trump closes the southern border.  It's a ridiculous lie.  The press is obsessed with making Trump look bad.  So obsessed our mainstream news outlets have become nothing more than propaganda machines for the extreme left.

We can't rely on the news outlets anymore.   If they were really concerned about telling us the results of potential political decisions they would look at the socialist idea of eliminating fossil fuels in ten years.  Imagine no more long distance shipping in the U.S.  All your fruits, vegetables, and meats are going to be locally grown.  The further they have to be shipped to get to you the more expensive they will be.  Your fresh fruits and vegetables will be mostly locally grown and seasonal, not even fresh apples or grapes in January and certainly no oranges.  Just sit down and consider what a world without long distance shipping will be like before you consider how great the Green New Deal would be.

Sources and more information:
[Avocado prices surge amid fears of shortage if U.S.-Mexico border closes](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/looming-avocado-shortage-drives-up-prices-as-trump-threatens-to-close-united-states-border-with-mexico/)
[How the U.S.-Mexico border dispute could make avocados ... toast](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/04/02/how-us-mexico-border-dispute-could-make-avocadostoast/?utm_term=.e706cda5a8f4)
[If Trump closes Mexican border, avocados could cost more and auto factories could shut](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/04/02/trump-mexican-border-threatened-shutdown-would-raise-avocado-prices/3344041002/)
[Avocados Exports by Country](http://www.worldstopexports.com/avocados-exports-by-country/)
[Netherlands second largest avocado importer worldwide](https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2017/19/netherlands-second-largest-avocado-importer-worldwide)