COVID, trade issues top of mind for FPAA members
The U.S.-Mexican border is a living organism and that keeps life interesting for West Mexico distributors.
“The border is always changing,” said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, Nogales, Ariz.
The commodity volumes coming through Nogales have been steady even with the pandemic, Jungmeyer said.
FPAA has about 50 member distributors, which include companies in Texas and Arizona.
Jungmeyer said the FPAA works to make sure that federal agencies have enough staffing for business demands.
“We’ve been very supportive of legislation to bring more customs officers to the border,” Jungmeyer said, noting that the decrease in airline traffic has reduced funding for customs agencies. The FPAA supports legislation that would provide more money to U.S. Customs and Protection.
Challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges to distributors, he said.
The main concern right now for distributors, Jungmeyer said, is getting the vaccine for their workers, making sure their workers are safe, healthy and their businesses are running. Some workers in their 30s and 40s were getting vaccine shots in late February, Jungmeyer said.
Attention has been turned to trade investigations, and Jungmeyer said the International Trade Commission’s decision that blueberry imports did not harm U.S. growers was important. Still, he said there are concerns about other trade investigations.
“We’ve been very clear to engage in that process to (advocate for) market access that our members need,” he said.
“(The investigation) was unfortunate because it has really cast a pall on the U.S.-Mexico relationship in the past year,” he said.
One thing that is very important to FPAA, he said, is to re-establish relationships with the incoming administration.
More and more companies have relationships in the U.S. and Mexico, and some have operations in Canada as well.
“It has been a big evolution to see that what defines your success in business is how well you’re able to deliver value for your customer,” Jungmeyer said. “The companies that are putting up good produce consistently, and making good deliveries, are rewarded with business.”
The new Biden administration should be eager to full the promises of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
“For agriculture and fresh produce, that means possibly using dispute resolution mechanisms within USMCA to sort out problems rather than have trade cases,” he said.
“The U.S. (places) a big emphasis on labor environment enforcement for USMCA, and one of our roles is making sure that we’re working (so) the Mexican industry understands what’s coming on there.”
Jungmeyer said that blueberries make up just 2% of the produce coming from Mexico to the U.S., but he noted that strawberries, raspberries, cucumbers, peppers and squash are big volume items that are also being investigated.
Combined with tomatoes, for which there is a suspension agreement between Mexican growers and the Department of Commerce, Jungmeyer said that 42% of Mexico’s produce to the U.S. is either under investigation or subject to the suspension agreement. That represents uncertainty for produce companies throughout the supply chain, he said.
“The fact that the ITC ruled that there was no injury from blueberries is a positive, but each case will stand on its own merits,” he said.
Eventually, Jungmeyer said that FPAA members would like to see the USMCA provisions implemented that would address trade friction before disputes become full-fledged trade investigations for fresh produce items.
