Mexico: The Idaho of winter vegetables?

09/02/2011 09:06:00 AM
Amelia Freidline

Let’s narrow that broad statement down to one topic near and dear to all readers of The Packer — fresh fruits and vegetables.

The U.S. is blessed with a bounty of fresh produce grown across the nation, from heavyweight producers like California all the way down to countless local growers.

We’re also fortunate to have a couple of great neighbors — Mexico and Canada — who serve as markets for U.S. fruits and vegetables as well as suppliers to our market.

That’s why I was irritated, but not surprised, by some stats presented during a panel discussion at the recent AMHPAC convention.

AMHPAC, which represents Mexican greenhouse and shade house producers, assembled a panel of U.S. retail, foodservice, food safety and supplier executives to address the question of whether Mexico is the ideal candidate to supply vegetables to the continent.

One of the panel members, Robert Garfield, senior vice president of Washington, D.C.-based Food Marketing Institute’s Safe Quality Food Institute, said 63% of U.S. consumers express confidence in food produced in Latin America, compared to 97% for U.S. food.

Comments (4) Leave a comment 

Totally disagree. Pre NAFTA Florida was the winter capital of fresh fruits and vegetables for the eastern half of the USA and then Washington got involved and has done a great job of trying to destroy another American industry. We are not allowed to supply our energy needs our clothing needs and now the ability to feed ourselves. Why are so many American growers moving south to Mexico?? Why is it when a food safety issue happens in America the media is all over it and they destroy an industry(tomatoes come to mind) and then they find out the product came from Mexico its business as usual.

I could not agree more. Here in Houston, the burger capital of the south, I would estimate 40% of burgers have some ingredient imported from Mexico. But God forbid we start talking about what the burger joints put in our burgers. Americans are ignorantly proud of their roots and as with everything else in life, education or lack of, makes it impossible for people to see beyond their prejudice. I've seen some amazing facilities in Mexico and they're the result of great foreign visionaries, and that's a threat some US Americans can't tolerate.

Mexican growers are leading the nation in the produce world. Brokers are a thing of the past. Mexican growers are moving towards "SEED TO FORK" Its intresting when a broker calls himself a grower.