US Would Run Out Of Avocados In Three Weeks If Trump Shuts Border, Expert Says

US brunch fans could be hard hit if Donald Trump closes the Mexican border, with one expert claiming the country would run out of avocados within three weeks.

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Steve Barnard, president and chief executive of Mission Produce, which is the biggest distributor and grower of avocados in the world, told Reuters: "You couldn't pick a worse time of year because Mexico supplies virtually 100 percent 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."

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, almost half of all the country's imported vegetables and 40 percent of imported fruit come from Mexico.

Despite that, Trump has threatened to close the border a bunch of times.

Last Friday, the President said there's a 'very good likelihood' that he'd close the border this week if Mexico failed to stop immigrants from reaching the US.

A shutdown such as that would impact millions of legal border crossings, as well as trades amounting to billions of dollars - the food imports alone are reportedly worth an eye-watering $137 billion (£104bn).

Monica Ganley, principal at Quarterra, a consultancy specialising in Latin American agricultural issues and trade told the news outlet that a closed border would see price hikes for a number of items.

Ms Ganley said: "We're absolutely going to see higher prices. This is a very real and very relevant concern for American consumers."

And it wouldn't just be the US that would be hard hit - Mexico takes a lot of imports from its neighbour too.

As well as avocados, the majority of the tomatoes, raspberries and cucumbers imported to the US come from Mexico. Although the country would be free to set up trade deals with other countries that produce items currently imported from Mexico, it would take time to set these up.