Latest News From Mexico

CHICAGO — Canada’s apple output is down slightly, but Mexican apple production is way up this year, according to industry reports at the U.S. Apple Association’s Marketing Conference.

Numerous produce industry and other groups have issued statements in the wake of a new agreement setting floor prices for Mexican tomatoes sent to the U.S.

The relief of reaching a new  tomato suspension agreement between Mexican tomato growers and the Department of Commerce has come with misgivings about the effect of mandatory inspections at the border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Pharr, Texas, recently stopped a load of limes containing $1.86 million in cocaine.

The Customs and Border Protection seized almost four tons of marijuana in a truck hauling jalapenos at the Otay Mesa cargo facility in San Diego.

Berry grower-shipper Always Fresh Farms, Winter Haven, Fla., has entered into a long-term partnership with Giddings Fruit S.A., a berry and cherry grower in Mexico and South America.

Supplies of Mexican avocados should pick up as fall progresses after going through a shortfall this summer.

Sun Belle Inc., Shiller Park, Ill., is expanding relationships with growers following a decision by the Giddings Group, which supplies berries from Mexico and Chile, to market its own berries.

Negotiations on a new tomato suspension agreement were stuck in neutral in early August, with a danger of slipping into reverse.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a statement Aug. 8 regarding the ongoing antidumping investigation on fresh tomatoes from Mexico.

Three months after the U.S. pulled out of the last agreement, Mexican tomato growers have put forward a new proposal for a tomato suspension agreement with the Department of Commerce.

For the first two months without the tomato suspension agreement with the U.S., both volume and value of U.S. imports of Mexican tomatoes have fallen below year-ago levels.

With a hint of possible trade retaliation against U.S. agricultural imports, Mexican industry leaders have warned that the current proposal from the U.S. create a new tomato suspension agreement is unacceptable.

(UPDATED) The Food and Drug Administration has named Mexican basil served at restaurants in four states as the likely source of a multi-state outbreak of 132 cyclospora illnesses.

Jerry Havel, active in the produce industry right out of college and a veteran of the Nogales, Ariz., import business, has died.

CORRECTED: In response to a distributor’s refusal to recall Mexican papayas implicated in a salmonella outbreak, the Food and Drug Administration has alerted all of its customers and is pursuing other actions.

NatureFresh Farms, Leamington, Ontario, has hired Paul Hulsbos as procurement manager, based in Mexico.

Mexico’s retailers are trending toward e-commerce, a new U.S. Department of Agriculture report says.

Agricultural specialists with the Customs and Border Protection recently intercepted several “highly unusual” pests at Port Manatee, Fla.

(CORRECTED) Despite requests from the Food and Drug Administration, the distributor of Mexican papayas named by the agency in an outbreak of salmonella has declined so far to issue a recall.

Growers of Mexican tomatoes recently submitted data to the U.S. Commerce Department and groups representing them say the information shows they are not dumping tomatoes into the U.S.

The Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, Maitland, is designating July 12 as #FairTradeForFarmers Day, asking for the public’s help to resist the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

More growth opportunities are dead ahead for Latin American fruit and vegetable growers, according to a new 326-page report.

The Food and Drug Administration has named Cavi brand whole fresh maradol papayas distributed by Agroson’s LLC, Bronx, N.Y., as the likely source of 71 cases of Salmonella Uganda.

Mexico’s National Service of Health, Food Safety and Food Quality, SENASICA, has described linking a salmonella outbreak to Mexican papayas as “premature.”

The Food and Drug Administration is investigating an outbreak of salmonella linked to whole fresh papayas from Mexico.

A new normal is taking hold for importers of Mexican tomatoes.

Mexico’s June 19 approval of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement brings the updated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement one important step closer to ratification.

A leading Mexican politician believes the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement may be in trouble without a renewed tomato suspension agreement.

Ongoing investment in protected agriculture in Mexico will likely result in continued losses for the fruit and vegetable industry in Florida, according to a new report from the University of Florida.

Avocados From Mexico has partnered with Walmart again, with more than 4,000 U.S. stores directing shoppers to avocado content through an online Chatbot.

Almost 1,000 agriculture groups and companies are urging Congress to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, including dozens of specialty crop groups.

President Trump has announced the U.S. and Mexico have reached a border immigration agreement that will indefinitely suspend 5% tariffs on Mexican imports that had been set to take effect June 10. 

The certainty of stable trade relations between the U.S. and Mexico seemed to be evaporating in early June.

Jimmy Munguia, the chairman of the tomato division for the FPAA, has been busy in recent months supporting the group’s position in favor of keeping a tomato suspension agreement in place.

(UPDATED, May 31) President Donald Trump has promised a series of escalating tariffs on Mexican imports if the U.S. southern neighbor doesn’t do more to stop undocumented migrants crossing to the U.S.

Mexican tomato growers proposed a new tomato suspension agreement to the Commerce Department on May 22, but Florida tomato growers gave it an icy reception.

Customs and Border Protection officials found $18.5 million worth of methamphetamine in a commercial load of carrots crossing into Pharr, Texas.

The U.S. has reached a deal with Mexico and Canada to remove tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from those countries. 

The possibility persists for a new tomato suspension agreement between the Commerce Department and Mexican growers, but hopes for a quick resolution have been doused.

Greenhouse grower NatureSweet is asking the Commerce Department for some exemptions on duties for its imported tomatoes grown in Mexico, on the basis they did not exist when those duties were originally set.

Mexican tomato growers have rejected the latest proposal from the Department of Commerce for a renewed tomato suspension agreement.

The Department of Commerce’s official notice on its termination of a tomato suspension agreement with Mexico is scheduled to be published May 13.

Al Bernardi, who helped established a Nogales, Ariz., brokerage as the area became a key link to imported produce, has died.

The Department of Commerce has terminated the 2013 Suspension Agreement on Fresh Tomatoes from Mexico, setting a 17.56% duty on Mexican tomatoes arriving in the U.S.

The Department of Commerce will follow through on its plan to withdraw from an agreement with Mexican tomato growers, triggering a 17.56% duty on tomatoes from Mexico, according to a Mexican official.

The Sykes Co., Rio Rico, Ariz., is now offering organic red seedless watermelons.

Consumer prices for some tomato varieties from Mexico could initially rise 40% in the U.S. when domestic supplies are low, according to an analysis on possible effect of duties on imported tomatoes when the Tomato Suspension Agreement is dropped in early May.

Days before the Department of Commerce plans set to set aside its Tomato Suspension Agreement with Mexican growers, panelists at the Viva Fresh Expo will discuss the issue.

As the Mexican grape season begins, importers will be seeing an expected 22-million carton crop this season, a one-third increase from last season.