A drought in northern Mexico could limit some produce output and crossings into Texas this winter.
“The limitations on irrigation water are certainly going to affect some production figures out there,” said Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association.
The lack of rain and limited irrigation water in Mexico’s state of Tamaulipas could limit the sizes of limes and other citrus crossing from Mexico. The growing region also sends onions to the U.S. in January and February.
Despite the drought, favorable weather in the fall in Mexican growing areas has helped the quality of produce, Galeazzi said.
Mexico’s greenhouse vegetables crossing into the U.S. in the winter primarily come from the west coast of Mexico.
“The early indicators are showing quality is really good on the product coming out of there and it is sounds like the market is going to be good for them,” he said.
The effect of the tomato suspension agreement on shifts in vegetable acreage is not yet known.
“I think it’s going to be a wait and see factor,” Galeazzi said. “I do think we will see fewer tomatoes in the marketplace,” he said, speculating there could be a switch to more eggplants, bell peppers or specialty tomatoes.
“I think it’s really going to be over the course of the next six to 12 months that we will see how the new suspension agreement has impacted the industry.”
The suspension agreement will require inspections of tomatoes in March, and that has some distributors concerned about delays at the border.
Galeazzi said the Texas International Produce Association has been working very closely with USDA to make sure the agency has enough resources in place when mandatory inspections begin.
“It is going to be a learning curve for the industry though, and there is going to need to be some processes put in place at warehouses to be able to set up for the inspectors to come in conduct the inspections,” he said.
Warehouses will also need processes in place to put trucks on standby until the inspectors there are able to go through tomatoes.
Tomato inspections are expected to begin about March 19, said Jaime García, general manager for Donna, Texas-based Kingdom Fresh Farms.
“I believe it will be a problem at some some warehouses because they might not have space, but we are managing to do some changes here internally to help us take care of (that need),” he said.
Garcia anticipates there may be times when delays caused by inspections hurt the whole supply chain, and those delays could affect other commodities as well.
“It is not going to make things easier,” he said, noting possible delays for Mexican grapes next year.
