The U.S. market has finally opened up for Jalisco-grown Hass avocados, after U.S. phytosanitary authorities reached a deal with their Mexican counterparts to allow imports from the country's second-largest production region.

Mexico's Ministry of Agriculture said that the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) had agreed to certify producers from Jalisco starting next season, which begins in April 2022.

Under the work plan, the phytosanitary authorities from both countries will draw up the requirements that producers must meet at farms and packhouses in order to be eligible to market their avocados in the US.

The Ministry said that the development was made possible thanks to the work of exporting avocados from Jalisco's neighboring state of Michoacan, which has for 20 years been the only state with access to the U.S. market.

Currently, Michoacan producers around 1.8 million metric tons (MT) of Hass avocados per year, while Jalisco producers 248,000MT.

The Ministry of Agriculture says it expects other Mexican production regions to also gain access to the U.S. in the future.

APHIS had in mid-2016 said that it planned to allow avocado imports from Jalisco, but the market access was eventually delayed. The confusion led to five trucks carrying Jaliscan avocados being turned away from the U.S. border in January 2017.

See also: Jalisco avocado delay in the U.S. has 'nothing to do with Trump'