URUAPAN, Mexico - When talk turns to China, the destination of avocados, Elena Roman lights up, carefully packing the fruits at a plant in the west-central Mexican state of Michoacan. "It's nice to think they are going to travel as far as there, it's exciting to know that," Roman, 40, said in the small verdant town of Uruapan.

The mother of four works at Avo Hass, one of eight avocado packing plants in Uruapan that export to China, a market that producers are increasingly striving to conquer.

Avo Hass alone aims to ship as many as 300 tons of avocado to China this year, double the 150 tons it exported in each of the past two years, when it began to trade with the Asian giant.