GROWERS FIGHT TO MAINTAIN AVOCADO BAN.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Four generations of Schwabauers have raised avocados north of Moorpark, and David Schwabauer says that legacy would be threatened if Mexican avocados were allowed in this country under an import proposal.

Ventura County growers fear that a U.S. Department of Agriculture proposal to end an 80-year quarantine could introduce crop-destroying pests, as well as undercut prices.

Led by the California Avocado Commission, growers contend that the import plan is a hasty effort to help Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement and could ultimately cripple the state's $325-million crop.

"We're fearful of more pests. This would just add more to the list," said Schwabauer, whose family's orchard of mostly avocado and lemon trees spans some 500 acres.

"Mexico is a tremendously large producer, much, much larger than us. So this would be a real lucrative market for them," he said.

Under the proposal, fresh Haas avocados grown in Michoacan, Mexico, would be imported into 19 eastern states and the District of Columbia. The fruit could only be imported between November and February, when the cold weather would be expected to freeze out any fruit flies.

Federal agriculture officials have said they would not have published an import-rule proposal if they didn't think it had merit.

Growers have battled the proposal for the past two years, contending that crop-destroying fruit flies and weevils would cross the border and threaten the domestic crop.

Fearing an imminent end to the ban, growers in Ventura County and across California have launched an expensive campaign aimed at federal officials and President Clinton, a champion of NAFTA.

"The fight certainly has entered into the realm of politics, I think, by the (agriculture) department's own doing," said Tom Bellamore, the avocado commission's vice president for industry affairs. "Certainly, the department's own trade agenda and, we believe, political pressure from Mexico has come to bear."

With the import proposal nearing approval, the commission began a public attack this past week.

The commission purchased $200,000 for advertising space in national publications for a public appeal that claims, "The USDA is about to sign the death warrant for a billion dollar American industry."

Bellamore said the commission plans further attacks in coming weeks now that the proposed import rule has been passed along from regulatory officials to top agriculture department officials.

The avocado proposal has been as controversial as any the agriculture department has faced. As a result, the proposal is receiving a higher-level review than normal, said Steve O'Neill, the regulatory analyst overseeing the review.

"They're certainly trying to influence the policy decision making," O'Neill said. "Nothing in that ad was new. Those points came out during the comment period."

Regulators received more than 2,000 comments, most in opposition to the proposal, during the 90-day comment period that ended Oct. 15.

The growers want to keep out Mexican avocados until assurances are provided that Mexican growers would produce comparable pest-free fruit. U.S. growers contend the scientific analysis is flawed and clouded by politics.

O'Neill, however, said no significant changes were made to the import proposal before it was forwarded to top department officials at the end of February.

"It's there for the decision to be made," he said.

Mexican avocados have not been allowed into this country since a quarantine was established in 1914 over fears that three species of fruit flies and four species of weevils might reach U.S. orchards and decimate crops.

Under pressure from Mexican authorities, who contend they can raise and ship pest-free avocados, the import proposal aims to shield orchards such as those in Ventura County from contamination. The plan requires the growing and shipping of pest-free fruit and would limit imports to the eastern states in winter in an effort to kill any fruit flies that might hitch a ride.

The impact of fruit flies and weevils on California avocados indeed would be significant, said Ben Faber, a University of California Cooperative Extension farm adviser who works in Ventura County.

Avocados essentially are organically grown in Ventura County. Tiny wasps are released as natural predators for avocado pests, but otherwise growers mostly water trees and pick fruit, he said.

"So when you bring in a pest, it really wreaks havoc on the trees because we don't have the natural predators," Faber explained.

Faber has studied, in particular, damage done by both the seed weevil and the stem borer weevil in Mexico and Costa Rica. He said the seed weevil bores through the fruit and lays an egg under the skin. The larvae will burrow further, seeking the protein of the seed, and essentially ruin the fruit. The stem borer causes a wound and oozing and loss of vigor in the tree.

"The threat to the industry here is significant," Faber said. "There's at least 20 other pests in Mexico that we don't have here."

Avocados were grown on about 67,000 acres in the state, including nearly 16,000 acres in Ventura County, during the 1993-94 season. The state crop's annual value has averaged about $325 million over the past decade. The value of the 1994 avocado crop in Ventura County was pegged at $69.59 million.

Ventura County growers endured mild fallout from the Mediterranean fruit-fly threat in 1994 and 1995, which prompted a quarantine and aerial pesticide spraying centered on Camarillo. Those same growers now fear that proposed controls on Mexican orchards and packing houses won't go far enough to prevent a similar threat in avocados.

"There are some excellent growers down there," said Sam McIntyre, a partner with Pro-Ag Inc., which manages 1,400 acres of avocado orchards in Ventura County. "But it's just like some growers we have here in Ventura County who neglect their groves."

In California, for instance, state agriculture officials can declare an infested orchard a nuisance and force the grower to eradicate the problem. There are no similar controls in Mexico.

"It's not a bunch of baloney about keeping Mexican avocados out of this country," McIntyre said.