Mash Up: Staples and Exotics
Armando Flores, a licensed customs broker for Ace Customs Broker, Inc. in Hidalgo, confirms the ongoing popularity of both avocados and limes, and has also seen an abundance of tomatoes, watermelon, onions, Chinese squash, and berries. Among the more popular berries moving across the border are blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries.
Sweet Seasons has been building a market for specialty tropical fruits that are more recent launches into the American grocery and restaurant scene: Mexican starfruit and pitahayas. Garcia says there’s been plenty of obstacles associated with getting the exotic fruit across the border, which have considerably more barriers than avocados.
More Greenhouse-Grown Vegetables
For Moreno Produce, its top U.S. imports include the ever-popular jalapeño, Mexican tomatoes, and cilantro. Felipe Moreno, the company’s vice president, highlights the increase in the number of greenhouse growers, which has improved quality and led to less shifting in available commodities with the seasons.
For Camacho, sourcing greenhouse items was a result of inclement weather. “Due to the impact of weather, it is a fact that Mexico, the United States, and Canada cannot depend on open field crops. We must protect the produce, not only from rain but also from disease, bugs, bacteria, water, animals, etc. Protected environment crops will increase abundance and make more [aesthetically-pleasing] products.”
Another supplier, Bonanza 2001, grows all of its tomatoes hydroponically on close to 65 hectares of greenhouses in Jalisco.
“We first started in greenhouses in 2005,” Salinas says, when consumers began seeking more consistent quality and better flavor in tomato varieties. “We invested in greenhouses to keep up with the demand for high quality.”
According to Salinas, the market isn’t leaning toward new varieties as much as having an “increased interest in packs of specialty items like yellow, red, orange, and grape tomatoes in clamshells and fancier packaging for retail.”
One way he tracks local market demand is through a grocery store app from Texas retail chain H-E-B, which Salinas says “keeps me in the loop of what’s on sale, what’s in season, and what there’s a lot of—it helps to pay attention to these little apps.”
Quality Drives Sales
Despite the embracing of ‘ugly’ or less-than-perfect fruit and vegetables in the United States, Canada, and Europe, those in the Rio Grande Valley continue to emphasize and push for the highest-quality produce.
