Avocado Shortage Could Endanger Football Fans’ Super Bowl Guacamole

It may be time to start making an alternate game plan for Super Bowl Sunday chip dip. A major fuel shortage in Mexico is threatening farmers’ abilities to ship avocados to the United States in time for the annual NFL football championship, Reuters reports. Cue the guacpocalypse.

In an effort to curb rampant fuel theft by criminal organizations, the Mexican government-run oil company Pemex changed its distribution system last month; however, the rejiggering of operations has lead to gasoline shortages across six Mexican states including Michoacan — the country’s primary producer of avocados. Farmers in the region are expected to ship approximately 120,000 tons of the precious green globes to the U.S. over the next three weeks in order to meet demand from football fans. Only 27,000 tons have been shipped so far.

This impending avocado shortage may sound familiar. The fruits that prevented many a millennial from purchasing a home have faced supply issues frequently in the past. Just two months ago, a grower’s strike in Mexico halted avocado imports and caused a squeeze on the American supply. Last August, New Zealanders were resorting to desperate measures to acquire avocados that were spiking in price due to low crop yields. The avocado market could face even more troubles in the future due to climate change, as the water-intensive crop is grown in areas that are prone to drought. But the current crop’s transportation issue certainly comes at an unfortunate time, when demand is higher than usual.

While a Super Bowl sans a big bowl of guacamole sounds like a football game not worth sitting through, there is a worthy alternative with ingredients in boundless supply: queso. The cheesy Tex-Mex dip recipe typically calls for either Velveeta or American cheese and the latter happens to be experiencing a record 1.4 billion-pound surplus, according to NPR. Americans may be eating less processed cheese, but it’s practically impossible to resist the allure of a melty amalgam of orange cheese and peppers on a crunchy corn chip.

• Holy Guacamole! Mexican Fuel Shortage Threatens Super Bowl Snack [Reuters]
• Mexico Fuel Theft Crackdown Sparks Shortages, Puts Government on Defensive [Reuters]
• Nobody Is Moving Our Cheese: American Surplus Reaches Record High [NPR]
• Queso Is the World’s Most Perfect Food [E]