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Mexico: Local Forecast

Need-to-know info on Mexico’s top growing regions
Mexico Map_MS

Mike Righetti, managing member of Nogales, AZ-based Righetti Farms, LLC, has been in the produce business since 1992 importing melons, tomatoes, and foodservice mixers from the states of Sinaloa, Sonora, Jalisco, Michoacán and Guerrero.

As Righetti sees it, there are new regions entering the growing arena specifically to bridge the period from mid-May through September. And he credits protected agriculture for this trend.

“With the expansion of greenhouse growing, we’re seeing people expand into places like Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí,” Righetti notes. “New companies and startups are getting involved, and product is crossing primarily into Texas.”

Exports: Going, Going, Gone
Among the top exports are tomatoes, chile peppers, citrus, tropical fruits, and of course, avocados.

The latter have enjoyed a tremendous spike in popularity over the past several years, and Mexico is home to the world’s top supplier—the state of Michoacán—which also produces limes, strawberries, blackberries, cantaloupe, peaches, and bell peppers.

To put this into numbers, in 2016 Americans bought and consumed 2.2 billion pounds of avocados, 60 percent of which came from Mexico (around 24 million pounds were from domestic growers in California).

In recent years, Michoacán has become the biggest strawberry-growing region in Mexico as well, ranking higher than Baja California and Jalisco.

But the Baja Peninsula continues to be a major player, producing 83,721 tons of strawberries and blackberries in 2016, largely in open-air fields.

Even so, California still supplies the most significant volume of strawberries—nearly 80 percent—consumed in the United States, with Florida coming in second.

Citrus, Tropical, and Other Fruits
Like its northerly neighbor, Mexico is not immune to the scourge of the citrus industry: citrus greening or Huanglong-bing disease.

In Veracruz, home to most of the country’s orange groves, production was down in 2016 even though total orange production was nearly 5 million tons. While the disease still has not caused the type of destruction found in Florida’s citrus groves, growers are tracking the disease carefully.

Limes come of age
A citrus bright spot is limes, which have enjoyed climbing demand in the United States. America’s loss—a devastating plague of citrus canker back in 2007 which decimated the industry—has been a boon for Mexico’s growers and exporters.

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