Texas

Viva Fresh Tackles Biggest Challenges for Tex-Mex Produce

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:23:49 GMT

SAN ANTONIO — From labor and water shortages to fraud and cartels, the fast-paced, insight-packed session, “TIPA on the Buzzer Beaters of Produce Policy,” at Viva Fresh Expo 2026 tackled some of the biggest challenges facing produce in the Tex-Mex corridor and beyond.

The April 17 session featured the Texas International Produce Association’s Dante Galeazzi, CEO and president, and Jed Murray, director of government relations, who offered rapid, three-minute responses to a combination of prepared questions and questions from the audience on a range of hot topics.

Call for Water Infrastructure

Persistent water shortages in South Texas, driven by drought and water obligations from Mexico under the 1944 treaty not being met, have forced farmers to cut back on both the acreage and variety planted to fruits and vegetables, says Galeazzi.

Water scarcity, affecting the Rio Grande Valley and surrounding areas, has caused some producers to plant only half their typical acreage while others face reduced yields, smaller produce and significant financial risks.

“Weather and water shortages played a major role,” says Galeazzi, who notes Texas water shortages led to decreased production of between 30% and 40% this season for growers in the state.

“Water infrastructure seems to be the very last thing we focus on,” says Galeazzi, who sees investment in other infrastructure from roads to bridges to internet. “The government needs to look at water infrastructure before it’s too late to do something about it,” he says.

Produce Prices Not Keeping Pace

While the cost of growing, packing and shipping produce has gone up exponentially, produce prices at retail went up just .03% in the last year, says Galeazzi.

“We are not seeing prices adjust quickly enough,” he says. “Just in the last year alone the price of diesel has gone up $2 a gallon. A truck from the Rio Valley in Texas to Hunts Point [Produce Market] costs $800 more in fuel.”

Add to this soaring input and labor costs, tariffs and geopolitical volatility, and the profit margin on produce shrivels further.

Labor Crisis Accelerates

Because of its proximity to Mexico, South Texas was slower to experience labor shortages than other parts of the country.

“Our folks really didn’t start feeling labor shortages until about 15 years ago, but very quickly in the last 10 years, those issues have compounded, and so we have had to move very quickly, not only to adapt to the changing environment — to adapt to H-2A — but also for our folks to understand those programs and find ways to become more efficient,” says Galeazzi.

In the last 10 years, Texas wasn’t even on the radar of the top 10% of H-2A users, says Murray.

“Last year, we were No. 7 and Q1 [first quarter] of 2026 we were No. 4,” says Murray, underscoring how quickly labor has become a key issue in the state.

“Overall, the nation has about 65,000 workers already signed up this year to come in the United States and work, with 91% [of them] being from Mexico, Venezuela, Guatemala, South Africa and some of these other countries that are sending workers this way,” he adds.

“Last year, we did right around 380,000 H-2A workers in the nation. We’re anticipating that number to be close to 430,000 if not more, this coming year,” Murray continues.

Murray then discussed the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, which in Texas went down to $11.61 an hour for a Tier 1 employee, which has helped the state’s growers have a competitive rate.

Cartels

Fielding a question from the audience on whether TIPA has seen an impact of cartel activity in Mexico, Galeazzi said, “I think we have seen impact.”

As mangoes and avocados out of Mexico require inspection, recent changes in cartel leadership in Sinaloa caused the U.S. to suspend all inspections. This also impacted H-2A worker visa applications that were shut down.

“Now takes almost three weeks to get an H-2A worker visa,” he says.

Rise in Produce Fraud

Galeazzi cautioned the audience that there’s been a rise in fraud.

Last summer a TIPA member received a call from someone falsely representing a major company in produce. The fraudster ordered a load of limes, and because the company name was already in the supplier’s system, they filled the order.

“We all do business like that. We’ve all sold to companies where you recognize the name when you pick up the phone,” says Galeazzi.

The buyer calls again and orders a second load, which the supplier fills.

“Now what happens is, between the second and the third load, the market drops about $5 in limes,” says Galeazzi. But when the seller got the green light for a third load, the buyer didn’t ask about the cost. Realizing this was suspicious, the seller called the company that was supposed to be the buyer and the scam was revealed.

“Long story short, those two loads have disappeared,” Galeazzi says. “Thankfully, he was able to move quickly and save the third load.

“What has happened, though, is that you have this ring of fraudsters, and they’re operating throughout the country, primarily out of the East Coast,” he adds. “What they’re doing is these guys are familiar with our industry and how it works. They basically are going into Blue Book, calling suppliers, impersonating large companies, and they are exposing our weaknesses.

“They know, as a produce industry, we extend people credit. They also know we don’t start calling for money until what, day 20? So, these guys are going to put in orders as fast as they can for 20 days and then disappear,” Galeazzi says.

While Galeazzi says TIPA has been challenged to find the right law enforcement to pursue these cases, last month Blue Book helped get a case together in South Florida, and they finally caught the fraudster.

“We need to be vigilant about this,” says Galeazzi. “You need to make sure you’ve got some best practices [in place].”

What Would You Ask Rollins?

Fielding another question from the audience, Galeazzi and Murray were asked what they would ask Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins if they met with her.

“We have sent communications to her about a lot of different things,” Galeazzi says. “We would first ask that they do something to improve the FSA process. FSA is a Farm Service Agency. It’s where our farmers report things, how they go in for acreage. It’s how they get crop insurance for NAP [Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program]. It’s how they access the drought programs for relief. Right now, that process is very antiquated. Believe it or not, the farmers have to physically go into the office to report acreage when they put something in the ground and they harvested it, versus an email. Changing that would be huge.”

Murray says they’d also welcome the opportunity to discuss specialty crop crop insurance and grant money for covering risk.

“They have a great, robust program for cotton and grain guys. That’s easy to do because the acres are there,” says Murray. “They’re not so specialized as we are — 2 acres of this and 3 acres of that — so it’s very difficult for them to put together a disaster relief or insurance program.”

Murray cited the disparity between the $12 billion in farm aid relief that went to American farmers of row crops compared to the $1 billion earmarked for specialty crops.

He also wants to see the USDA do more to promote fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet through the education system.

Canada to Cease Quality Inspections

Galeazzi also addressed efforts in response to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s announcement earlier this year that it plans to discontinue the Destination Inspection Service for fresh fruits and vegetables, citing budgetary reasons.

“We, alongside CPMA [Canadian Produce Marketing Association] and others … worked so hard to get those inspections in place,” he says. “We have worked hard to create equality across the United States and Canada, and so we are working alongside our friends in Canada to ensure they understand the importance of keeping government inspections for fresh produce.”

Galeazzi says another challenge to U.S.-Canada produce trade is Canada’s new packaging rules.

“Canada has a whole slew of packaging rules that are going to come into place. And there are a lot of concerns. One of the concerns is the glue on the PLU sticker is not compostable, so you may not be able to use that PLU sticker, or you might pay a fine for every single piece of produce you go with to Canada that has a PLU,” says Galeazzi.

He says TIPA is working to help the Canadian government understand the complications of such a packaging rule.

He says Canada also wants to limit food to a single package.

“How are grapes shipped? Grapes go in a bag, and then they go in a box, and then they go on a pallet,” says Galeazzi. While he says TIPA understands sustainability concerns, without protective packaging, products from grapes to berries to tomatoes will be damaged in transit, resulting in unsustainable food waste.

“I call it the Amazon effect,” says Murray. “You order something in a box, and you get two more boxes inside that, and then it goes to you. And so, I think that they kind of created this rule as well to look at what’s happening in that packaging, but they didn’t realize that standardization then transfers to fresh fruits and vegetables, which we have to protect them and have more than just one box.”

Tomato Dumping

Tomatoes and the end of the Tomato Suspension Agreement was another hot topic at Viva Fresh.

In July, the U.S. Department of Commerce terminated the 2019 Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Duty Investigation on Fresh Tomatoes from Mexico, and with that termination, the Commerce Department issued an antidumping order that places a 17.09% duty on most imported tomatoes from Mexico.

“The biggest issue too is, at some point very soon, ITC [the U.S. International Trade Commission] is going to determine if, not only is [dumping] still happening or not happening, but is 17% enough? [What] a lot of people don’t know is the 17% duty rate on tomatoes is just a placeholder at a point in a review,” says Galeazzi. “Anytime between now and six years, ITC can make the evaluation after so many years and say, ‘Hey, actually, we noticed that 17% wasn’t enough.

“Dumping was still happening, and it was happening at a rate of what looks like 25%, so everybody that already paid those millions of dollars on 17% has to make up that additional percentage,” he adds.

Galeazzi says TIPA is working to help educate ITC.

TIPA Sues OSHA

TIPA and the Texas Vegetable Association sued OSHA in late 2025 in the Northern District of Texas, challenging OSHA’s constitutional authority to create laws without legal foundation. The suit argues the 1970 Act gives the agency overly broad power. As such, it seeks to block one-size-fits-all safety regulations and their enforcement on produce companies.

Galeazzi says the lawsuit moved to South Texas last week. He gave the example of an OSHA regulation that requires a tractor driver on a farm receive training every year, even if the worker has been with the farm for 16 years.

“Does that make sense? Our concern is these regulations are being created in a vacuum without the stakeholders in the room,” says Galeazzi.

Exploring the Spirit of San Antonio While at Viva Fresh

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:25:19 GMT

While San Antonio might be known for its River Walk, there’s plenty to see while you’re in town for the Viva Fresh Expo , attendees say. But what are some destinations that top the list?

The famous battle cry goes “Remember the Alamo!” and that’s exactly what Viva Fresh attendees say to do.

“It’s one of those places that really captures the history and spirit of Texas,” says Jessica Soare, assistant vice president of marketing with Cox Farms. “Following a busy day on the show floor, stepping away to take in the culture and heritage of the region through a landmark like that is a great reminder of why this region is so special. It’s also a great way to explore San Antonio with colleagues and keep the conversations going outside the booth.”

Helen Aquino, vice president of innovation for Village Fresh Greenhouse Grown, says it’s an iconic piece of Texas history.

“When we’re in San Antonio, one stop that’s always worth making time for is the Alamo,” she says.

Alan Aguirre Camou, chief marketing officer of Divine Flavor, also recommends visiting the iconic fortress.

“It’s a foundational piece of Texas history and a truly moving experience for anyone visiting San Antonio for the first time,” he says.

Alaina Wilkins, key account manager for Pure Flavor, says Viva Fresh attendees don’t have to go far to enjoy an outing.

“The TPC San Antonio Golf Course at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa offers a memorable escape,” she says. “Rolling through oak-studded hills, the course provides sweeping views of the Texas Hill Country and a refreshing mix of challenge and relaxation away from the show floor.”

Jim Leach, director of foodservice and Southwest sales for Oppy, also recommends attendees check out the San Antonio restaurant and sports scene.

“It’s a great food city with so many amazing options,” he says. “One of our office favorites is Paesanos. And if the timing works out, catching a Spurs game is always a fun way to spend an evening. Go Wemby!”

Juliemar Rosado, director of retail and international marketing with the National Watermelon Board, recommends visiting the Pearl District, a walkable culinary and cultural hub north of downtown, redeveloped from a historic 1883 brewery.

“I love the Pearl District,” she says. “Such good food and atmosphere.”

Leslie Hernandez, experiential coordinator for the EXP Group, also recommends the Pearl District, exploring the Natural Bridge Caverns and visiting the Witte Museum, though she says a big recommendation for out-of-staters is another piece of Texas iconography.

“No Texas trip feels complete without a mandatory stop at Buc-ee’s,” she says.

Water Issues Headlined 2025 and Will Likely Stay There in 2026

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 19:29:39 GMT

The year 2025 saw several big water issues hit the news, both nationally and in some of the biggest produce-growing states. Many of these stories will continue into 2026’s headlines.

For example, EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers set a water milestone late in the year when they finally released their long-awaited updated definition of Waters of the U.S. with implementation expected in February or March of 2026.

The announcement was made Nov. 17, and the proposed rule was released Nov. 20. This update was spawned by the 2023 Supreme Court’s Sackett decision, and — according to the EPA — will bring the definition in line with that ruling .

The release followed numerous listening sessions seeking input from states, industry, agriculture and other stakeholders. A resounding theme was the need to maintain state’s rights on the one hand and streamline the WOTUS determination process so landowners can easily determine if something on their operation counts as a jurisdictional water.

The proposed rule is up for public comment through Jan. 5, 2026.

The five-year water cycle ended, but the story continues for Texas

Late October 2025 saw the end of the most recent five-year water delivery cycle from Mexico to Texas according to the 1944 treaty. As expected, Mexico did not deliver the 1.75 million acre-feet it is required to within that five-year span, only sending just over 50% of that.

However, it did deliver more than a year’s worth of water (350,000 acre-feet) between late April and Oct. 24. That is good in the short-term, but Texas water and produce experts warn that the pattern of late or non-existent Mexican water deliveries is not sustainable for the state. They worry more crops, including the Texas citrus industry, will go the way of its sugar industry .

A common refrain from Texans is that Mexico is not keeping up it’s end of the bargain, having instead built up its permanent agriculture in arid Chihuahua and capturing water that should flow to Texas for those water-hungry crops. Experts have pushed for some ability to enforce the 1944 treaty, potentially through the upcoming U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement renegotiations .

But the story is and will continue into 2026. Early in December, President Donald Trump demanded Mexico deliver 200,000 acre-feet of water on its debt by Dec. 31. Mexico’s president called that impossible but said Mexico and the U.S. are working on an agreement for the future to pay down the water debt.

California’s water woes and their impact grow

The economic value of water to California’s produce drew the limelight early on in 2025. In April, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the Golden State had become the fourth-largest economy in the world . But that rank is tenuous and could be threatened if the state does not take action to ensure its water future.

Up to 3 million acres of farmland, 67,000 ag jobs and $39.5 billion from the economy could be lost if the state doesn’t invest in water storage and other strategies, according to a University of California, Davis study . All of this played out on a backdrop of ongoing, many say man-made , drought and disappointing water allocations even when there is water available.

As the year came to a close, California’s largest irrigation district released its economic impact review report, which found that water restrictions had wide-reaching negative impacts on the state and its people. In short, when water is cut, the production of fresh fruits and vegetables declines, more acres are fallowed, jobs and economic benefits are lost and more.

As the new year kicks off, the 2026 irrigation allocations will start to trickle in, so growers in the Golden State will know how to plan for their coming crops.

Taking a Moment with the 1944 Treaty’s Minutes

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 14:33:10 GMT

While a trickle of information was coming out on the recently announced water deliveries from Mexico to Texas, the U.S. and Mexico finalized another water-related agreement dealing with the 1944 Treaty.

On Dec. 15, the International Boundary and Water Commission, the agency responsible for applying and overseeing the boundary and water treaties between the U.S. and Mexico, announced that both governments had signed Minute 333. The agreement seeks to address the long-running issue of Mexican sewage reaching San Diego via the Tijuana River. More on that below, but first: What is a Minute when it comes to the 1944 Treaty?

Minutes are basically amendments to, or proposals of action within, the 1944 Treaty . They are also something that make the treaty “visionary” and “one of its kind in the world,” according to Rosario Sanchez, Texas A&M AgriLife Research senior research scientist at the Texas Water Resources Institute and director of the Permanent Forum for Binational Waters.

“The built in Minutes process is basically the adaptation of the treaty over the years,” she explained earlier this year . “That’s the way the treaty has evolved, and it’s pretty unique for that.”

Keeping up with the water times

So far, the treaty has been updated or amended 333 times with the signing of this most recent Minute, and it is likely there will be more soon.

While fielding press questions about the water delivery shortfall to Texas during her Dec. 10 morning address , Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said, while whole treaty might need to be renegotiated in the near future, the Minute system could prevent such a massive overhaul.

“According to all the experts, the 1944 Treaty is very favorable for Mexico,” she said. “Entering into a renegotiation process of the entire treaty might not be necessary. What does need to be done are additional agreements or Minutes, depending on the amount of water available.”

“More than renegotiating the 1944 Treaty, we need to be in constant dialogue with the United States government to address the needs of both countries, based on the rainfall cycle and how much water is actually available.”

So, what is Minute 333?

The signing of Minute 333 is not part of that dialogue as far as Texas water deliveries are concerned, but it is still part of the conversation between the U.S. and Mexico on shared water issues,” Sheinbaum added. “In this case, the Tiajuana River.

For several decades, raw sewage from Mexico has been carried by the Tiajuana River to Pacific Ocean beaches, including in San Diego. Minute 333 seeks to address this issue through a variety of means, including:

Conducting feasibility studies on adding to, expanding or repairing existing Mexican wastewater treatment facilities
Completing the building of a the new Tecolote-La Gloria Wastewater Treatment Plant by Dec. 2028
Creating new sediment management systems and finding appropriate cost-share opportunities for existing sediment and trash management projects
Creating a new account at the North American Development Bank to provide for Mexico’s ongoing operations and maintenance of sanitation infrastructure

“Thanks to the leadership of Presidents Trump and Sheinbaum, I am proud to be signing Minute 333 today,” said Chad McIntosh, U.S. Commissioner of IBWC in the group’s announcement of the agreement.

McIntosh’s Mexican counterpart, Adriana Reséndez, described the new minute as a continuation of Mexico’s commitment to “resolving the border sanitation problem at San Diego-Tijuana, pursuant to the provisions of the 1944 Water Treaty and to benefit the environment and the health of residents on both sides of the border.”

Details Unclear on Promised Water Deliveries From Mexico

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 20:22:58 GMT

Texas will supposedly get up to 202,000 acre-feet of water from Mexico in accordance with the 1944 Treaty beginning this week, the week of Dec. 15, according to the USDA.

However, it is unclear where this water will come from because Mexico doesn’t have that volume of water in its international holdings. Depending upon source, it is also unclear how useful this release will be to Texas agriculture.

“They don’t have a whole lot of the international storage and international reservoirs,” says Sonny Hinojosa, current water advocate and former general manager at the Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2 in San Juan, Texas. He does note Mexico has some water in its internal reservoirs, however.

During her daily morning address on Dec. 15, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, told the press “we are not giving away water that we don’t have or that would affect the Mexican people.”

Backstory to the 202,000-acre-feet announcement

USDA’s Dec. 12^th announcement was the main outcome of a series of meetings between the U.S. and Mexico that was kicked off on the afternoon of Dec. 8, when President Donald Trump demanded Mexico release 200,000 acre-feet of water by Dec. 31 on threat of an additional 5% tariff in a Truth Social post.

“Mexico continues to violate our comprehensive Water Treaty, and this violation is seriously hurting our beautiful Texas crops and livestock,” he wrote.

President Donald Trump’s Dec. 8 Truth Social post.

(Screen capture)

This is a reference to Mexico’s failure to deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water to Texas via the Rio Grande by the end of the most recent five-year cycle, which ended on Oct. 24. According to the 1944 treaty, when Mexico fails to deliver the full amount within the five-year cycle, the remainder is carried over into the next cycle as debt. Water debt must be paid in addition to the current cycle’s volume.

USDA’s Dec. 12^th announcement included that there are ongoing negotiations between the countries to finalize a plan by the end of January 2026 for Mexico to repay its outstanding water debt of roughly 800,000 acre-feet.

Appreciation from Texas

The announcement was widely welcomed by Texas agricultural groups.

“I applaud President Trump for putting American farmers first and holding Mexico’s feet to the fire to get this treaty honored,” said Texas’ Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in an announcement on Dec. 14.

“For years, producers in the Rio Grande Basin have been shorted the water they are legally owed, causing the loss of crops, jobs, industries, and livelihoods,” he added. “Let me be clear: Texas farmers expect Mexico to fully meet its obligations — not just today, but for years to come. Water is the lifeblood of agriculture.”

In a letter to the editor sent out midday Dec. 15, various Texas produce and row crop groups expressed gratitude to the Trump administration, including U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. But the co-signed groups and their leaders also urged quick implementation and consequences for inaction.

“While Mexico did deliver some water this year, thanks to pressure by the Trump administration, it was not enough to cover the debt,” wrote Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association.

“This new understanding must be quickly implemented. The U.S. must not allow Mexico to delay fulfilling its obligations, or it risks Mexico overusing water resources that should be shared. A tactic taken by Mexico for years without penalty or accountability,” Galeazzi continued.

Dale Murden, president of Texas Citrus Mutual, similarly applauded the move, but urged the administration to push Mexico to “honor this new agreement or face consequences.”

“The short- and long-term impacts on Texas farmers are beyond the data on paper,” Murden wrote. “Livelihoods have been uprooted, and the region’s agricultural landscape may never be the same again. Meanwhile, Mexico continues to expand its agricultural production that directly competes with U.S. producers … with water that should have been delivered to the U.S.”

Where will that water come from?

The co-signed groups and Hinojosa, who helped provide data for the meetings held between the U.S. and Mexico, all noted details from USDA on this new water transfer are currently unknown. What is known is that Mexico doesn’t have 202,000 acre-feet of water in the international dams.

According to public records (based on Nov. 29 conditions, most recent) from the International Boundary and Water Commission, the U.S. side of the group that adjudicates the water treaties between the U.S. and Mexico, Mexico’s water ownership at the Amistad and Falcon dams amounts to just under 166,000 acre-feet.

The Rio Grande reservoirs and tributaries in Mexico. From pg. 4 of Assistant Rio Grande Watermaster Jose A. Davila’s 2023 presentation for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

(Image and presentation from the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission)

Sheinbaum told reporters Dec. 15 that Mexico “examined different river basins to determine how we could meet the United States’ request.”

Hinojosa reports hearing that the near-term repayment could include water from the Rio San Juan, which fits with Sheinbaum’s description. However, the Rio San Juan is not one of the original six Rio Grande tributaries covered by the 1944 treaty. It is also a problematic source, according to Hinojosa.

“We can’t capture or store that water,” he said. This means that such water would be of little use to farmers, but could be used for municipal purposes. “We’ve utilized it in the past, but [Mexico has] restrictions as far as what they can release.”

Those restrictions mean that the full 202,000 acre-feet could not come from that source alone, and certainly not by the end of December. Regardless, the agreement could be too little, too late for Texas growers who have already suffered tremendous losses, Hinojosa said.

“Once again, our spring crops are planted in late February, and I know our farmers; they’re not going to go on a limb and invest unless they know that we have the water,” he said. “So we might be looking at a fourth year of limited row crops. Now, if this continues and we get that 202,000 acre-feet, maybe it’ll help our vegetable farmers come next September or October, but we’ll be facing a fourth year of shortage.”

Mexico’s perspective

The U.S. and Mexico do not agree on the why behind the short water deliveries. While stakeholders on the U.S. side have pointed to growth of Mexico’s, especially Chihuahua’s, irrigated agriculture in recent years, Mexico has given a variety of reasons for not delivering sufficient water in a timely way.

During her Dec. 9 press meeting , Sheinbaum summarized the reasons why Mexico had not delivered more water in the past cycle as two-fold; Mexico’s own water needs and the limiting factor of the pipeline that carries water to the Rio Grande. However, she said the governors of the Mexican states, including Chihuahua, are united “to find the best agreement with the United States.”

On Dec. 15^th, she answered questions specifically about the details of the meetings, saying: “[the U.S.] requested that a certain amount of water be delivered by December, and we said that this was not possible, not only because it’s physically impossible, but also because it would have consequences if done in such a short time. So, an agreement was reached to deliver it over a longer period.”

She also cited drought and lack of rain in Mexico.

“So, an agreement was reached in this regard,” she said. “The agreement is typically for a five-year period, but now we will determine, based on the amount of rainfall during the rainy season, how to make up for the water that wasn’t delivered in the previous five years due to the drought.”

Sheinbaum also brought up the possibility that the 1944 Treaty, which she noted is very favorable to Mexico, might need to be renegotiated.

“Various experts say that Mexico may no longer be able to comply with this treaty, since the exceptional drought provision has been invoked in the last three cycles,” she said on Dec. 10. “It seems that the drought situation, or the lack of water to comply with the treaty, is no longer an exceptional one, but rather a reality.”

From Shipping to Store, Why the Right Packaging Matters for Citrus

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 12:33:57 GMT

Choosing the right packaging option for the right commodity is key to ensure quality arrivals when shipping Texas citrus, says Aaron Fox, executive vice president at McAllen, Texas-based Fox Packaging.

“Each product shines when the right bag is chosen,” he says.

For Texas oranges, shippers rely on three main formats, Fox says.

Leno bags are used for bulk programs because the material is strong and holds up across long runs.
Fox Fresh Mesh Combo in the 1-to-20-pound range accommodates retail packs.
Fresh VertiFilm provides a big print window and tidy shelf presence for retail formats from 1-to-8-pounds.

Standardized pack sizes help retailers hold predictable price points, which supports steadier supply across the season, Fox says.

Weight and rind care drive the choice for Texas grapefruit, explains Victoria Lopez, marketing and business development manager.

“Leno is a strong option for bulk and heavier packs because it resists tearing and breathes well in transit,” she says.

“Many shippers also choose Fresh Mesh Combo in the 5-to-10-pound range, and we are seeing an 8-pound, club-size trend gaining traction for its balance of value and carry comfort,” Lopez says.

A well-vented film format can work for smaller counts or gift-style presentation, provided ventilation stays high and handle strength is up to the task, she adds.

No matter what packaging option one chooses, keeping fruit dry, cool and well-ventilated from pack-out to the back room is a must, Lopez says.

“Start with dry, pre-cooled fruit and give it a package that breathes so you do not trap humidity against the rind,” she says.

Maintain the cold chain, but don’t cool grapefruit too much to reduce the risk of chilling injury, Lopez says. Keep the relative humidity high enough to limit weight loss.

A couple other suggestions: “Choose pack weights that match the commodity and route, spec reinforced handles and seams for heavier SKUs, use vented shippers or reusable plastic containers to keep air moving through the pallet, and avoid ethylene-heavy mixed loads, when possible,” Lopez advises.

Texas Citrus Season Off to Strong Start

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 18:14:12 GMT

Warm but manageable growing conditions have brought on a healthy crop of Texas sweet red grapefruit and early navel oranges this season.

“The crop looks good, the quality looks good,” says Dale Murden, president of Mission-based Texas Citrus Mutual.

Volume of both commodities should be similar to last season — close to 4 million cartons of grapefruit and about 1 million boxes of oranges. Texas sweet red grapefruit accounts for the majority of the Lone Star State’s citrus production.

The grapefruit harvest kicked off in late September and will continue until April or early May. Early navels will be available until the end of November, and valencias will ship in January, February and March.

Mission-based Lone Star Citrus Growers is taking steps to improve its operations as the harvest gets underway, says April Flowers, marketing director.

“We are fine-tuning a robotic palletizer this season, which will increase pack efficiencies,” Flowers says. “And our consumer website underwent a transition to a new platform, which will improve the end-user experience.”

Texas-grown sweet Rio Red grapefruit are the company’s main commodity.

“Thanks to the low acid and bright red flesh of our Rio Reds, our fans anxiously await Texas citrus season each year,” Flowers says.

On the organic scene, Mission-based South Tex Organics has kicked off its certified organic navel oranges and organic Rio Star grapefruit, says Russon Holbrook, vice president.

The company will start shipping valencia oranges in late January and will continue until April. Grapefruit will also be available from late October into April.

Texas-grown sweet Rio Red grapefruit are the main commodity from Mission-based Lone Star Citrus Growers, says April Flowers, marketing director. “Thanks to the low acid and bright red flesh of our Rio Reds, our fans anxiously await Texas citrus season each year.”

(Photo courtesy of Lone Star Citrus Growers)

Volume from South Tex Organics should be similar to last year, Holbrook says. Sizes will include many 36s, 40s and 48s for grapefruit and 88s to 113s on oranges.

Water continues to be a challenge throughout the state, but Murden says growers will make it through the season.

The state’s more than 600 citrus growers enjoyed good prices and good quality during the 2024-2025 season, Murden says.

“Last year people were very happy,” he says.

Growers are still trying to rebuild tonnage they lost after a 2020-2021 freeze and periods of bad weather, Murden says.

“We’re just now starting to see our younger trees that have been planted in the last four years come into production,” he says.

Flowers says she’s happy with the strong Brix-acid ratio the fruit from Lone Star Citrus already has achieved at this point in the season.

The company is also a supplier of Texas-grown, supersweet oranges with varieties such as early, Marrs, pineapples and valencias.

Lone Star Citrus Growers expects to ship 1.1 million cartons of citrus from October to mid-March, slightly more than last year.

Holbrook says he’s pleased with South Tex Organics citrus as well.

“Quality is pretty positive,” he says.

Demand for organic citrus continues to be steady for the company.

“We have a very solid customer base,” Holbrook says. “Each year we pick up new buyers. Those buyers have been growing with us year over year.”

Pure Flavor Acquires New Michigan Facility

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 15:13:53 GMT

Pure Flavor announced Nov. 10 that it has acquired a new, nearly 200,000 sq. ft. distribution center in Romulus, Mich. The company says the new facility will serve as a central hub for distribution of its fresh, greenhouse-grown produce and will reduce food miles and improve shipping efficiency.

As part of the realignment of its supply chain, Pure Flavor also announced it is consolidating its Texas distribution to a single centralized distribution point in Edinburg, Texas. The company describes both moves as part of its efforts to optimize its supply chain.

“This is an exciting step forward in our growth strategy,” says Jamie Moracci, CEO of Pure Flavor. “The new Michigan distribution center allows us to serve customers more quickly and sustainably, while our internal teams benefit from streamlined operations and improved logistics.”

The company expects to begin shipping from its new Romulus distribution center in Summer 2026.

All employees affected by changes to the Texas distribution network have been offered continued employment at the company’s other locations, along with severance packages and career transition assistance.

Voters Approve Initiatives for Food in Colorado and Water in Texas

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 18:54:51 GMT

While most of the 2025 election attention turned to the coasts — California’s redistricting proposal and the New York City mayoral race — there were a few food- and ag-focused items on more central U.S. ballots. And all four items passed, most with strong margins.

Coloradans Fund Universal School Food

Just over a third (35.6%) of registered voters turned out in Colorado for the off-year 2025 election. Both of Colorado’s statewide ballot issues that dealt with funding the state’s universal free meals for public school students — Propositions LL and MM — were approved by voters. Both propositions, in different ways, aimed to help fund the state’s Healthy School Meals for All program and its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Prop LL asked voters if it could keep $12.43 million in excess tax money it previously collected from high-income taxpayers and put it into the HSMA program and SNAP. This question was put to voters because of Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which requires the state to return excess tax revenue to the taxpayers unless voters allow the state to keep it.

According to the Colorado secretary of state’s office , Prop LL passed 64.7% to 35.3%, a difference of roughly 425,000 votes.

Prop MM passed with a slightly narrower margin — 58.1% for and 41.9% against, representing a difference of about 236,000 votes — according to the Colorado secretary of state’s office. Prop MM asked to raise up to $95 million annually by reducing the itemized or standard state income tax deductions high-income earners can claim. Currently, those deductions stand at $12,000 for single filers and $16,000 for joint filers. With the passage of Prop MM, these will drop to $1,000 and $2,000, respectively.

The Colorado secretary of state’s office estimates that Coloradans with a federal taxable income of $300,000 or more will see their income taxes increase by an average of $486 as a result of the passage of Prop MM.

Texans Opt for Untaxed Feed and Money for Water

Just under 16% of Texas voters turned out to voice their desires on two different amendments to the state constitution. Proposition 4 asked voters if the state could ear-mark up to $1 billion in its sales and use taxes for water infrastructure, and Prop 5 asked voters to not count animal feed stored for retail sale among property taxes. Both passed with noteworthy margins.

Prop 4 passed with a more than 40 percentage-point spread at 70.4% in favor and 29.6% opposed, a difference of about 1.2 million votes, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office .

The state constitutional amendment proposed to earmark the first $1 billion dollars after $46.5 billion is collected via sales and use taxes each fiscal year for the Texas Water Fund. This fund, administered by the Texas Water Development Board, goes to fund other water-related projects and initiatives throughout the state.

The amendment also requires that no less than 50% of the money that goes into the Texas Water Fund as a result of this measure must go to the New Water Supply for Texas Fund and/or the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas . Together, these two funds focus on increasing water supplies in the state. This can be through efforts like reservoir building, recapture and reuse projects, acquiring water or water rights from nearby states, or desalination efforts.

Prop 5 passed with 63.6% voting in favor and 36.4% voting against. With the passage of this amendment, “animal feed held by the owner of the property for sale at retail” will no longer be subject to property tax. According to Texas state Rep. Cody Harris, R-District 8, who authored the bill, the amendment will bring added consistency to how the state handles animal feed as it relates to taxes.

Across the state, only 15.7% of eligible Texas voters cast their vote on this issue. Perhaps unsurprisingly, however, voter turnout for this amendment was higher in small, rural counties.

Texas Faces Growing Pressure as Mexico Paid Only Half of Water Owed

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 19:41:08 GMT

Mexico’s water payday to Texas came and went Oct. 24. Once the full data came out a few weeks later, it was clear Mexico had only paid half the water it owed.

While this was not a surprise , it was still disappointing, according to sources.

“We’re just wrapping up a third year of water shortage,” says Sonny Hinojosa, current water advocate and former general manager at the Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2 in San Juan, Texas. “So, we’re going to start a fourth year of having insufficient water for ag. We got half the water we need, so we’re going to be crippled again for fourth year.”

According to the 1944 treaty that governs water sharing between the U.S. and Mexico on the Rio Grande, Mexico must deliver 350,000 acre-feet of water annually, equating to 1.75 million acre-feet every five-year cycle. For this most recent five-year cycle, Mexico had only delivered 884,864 acre-feet, 50.5% of the total.

Texas Farm Bureau State Director Brian Jones called the situation infuriating in a statement issued on the last day of the previous cycle.

“Another missed water delivery deadline by Mexico is another serious blow to Rio Grande Valley farmers and communities,” he said. “Farmers in the Rio Grande Valley have done about as much as they can to hang on until Mexico delivers the water it owes, including reducing the number of acres planted and switching to dryland crops that require less water.”

He pointed to Texas’ recent loss of its sugar cane industry as an example. He also spoke from his own experience, saying he can’t irrigate a third of his operation — cotton, corn, grain sorghum and soybeans in Hidalgo County — even once with the water available to him.

“It’s getting harder and harder to hang on,” he said. “How can someone sustain more than half of their farm sitting unproductive? You can’t.”

Accolades for April’s Meeting

Despite the recent focus on five-year cycles, agricultural water needs to operate on a seasonal-to-annual cycle. The 1944 treaty also says the deliveries should be annual.

When looking at Mexico’s water deliveries on an annual scale, it did really well in this past year (Oct. 25, 2024, through Oct. 24, 2025), delivering roughly 475,000 acre-feet. Most of that delivery — about 360,000 acre-feet — happened since late April, following a meeting between the U.S. State Department and the Mexican government.

Hinojosa says he is very glad of the State Department’s efforts in the situation.

“Had it not been for that meeting and pressure being put on Mexico, we probably wouldn’t have got this much water from them,” he says.

A chart showing the most recent five-year cycle’s deliveries (black line) compared to other past cycles’ deliveries from Mexico to the U.S. “Had it not been for that [late April] meeting, that black line would have just continued straight across, and this would have been a historical low,” said Sonny Hinojosa, current water advocate and former general manager at the Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2 in San Juan, Texas.

(Chart from the International Boundary and Water Commission; retrieved Nov. 3)

According to Hinojosa, Texas agriculture needs about 1 million acre-feet of water per year. Based on the most recent data, the state has about 900,000 acre-feet of water in storage, including from what Mexico sent this year.

“But after you subtract the reserves and such, agriculture is just left with a little over 500,000 acre-feet,” Hinojosa says. Still, the steady flow of water from Mexico this year was helpful to agriculture in the Rio Grande Valley, he adds.

“The sad part about it is, it was in the summertime,” a time when the most water losses occur, he explains. “But nonetheless, we needed the water for our vegetable growers.”

This water year in the cycle is a bit of a bittersweet situation.

“We still don’t have sufficient water, but we have more water than we have had the last couple of years,” Hinojosa says.

Still, the 2020-2025 cycle came in as the third-lowest delivery cycle in the past 10. Only the 1992-1997 cycle (when about 41% was delivered) and the 1997-2002 cycle (about 33% delivered) were lower.

Inner Workings of Water Debt

Mexico now finds itself in water debt. Again.

When Mexico doesn’t make its full 1.75 million acre-feet of water deliveries in a five-year cycle, it goes into debt that it must repay in the subsequent five-year cycle. This repayment comes in addition to the water it owes during that cycle.

“So, everything must be repaid within a 10-year period,” Hinojosa explains, adding that the treaty doesn’t allow for the debt to be carried into a third five-year cycle, though that did happen following the 1992-1997 cycle. Mexico has fallen into a habit of waiting and gambling for “a tropical system to pay this water for them,” he adds.

“A cycle ends when the United States conservation capacity is filled at both reservoirs,” he explains. “So, if there was some kind of storm that filled our capacity at 3.3 million acre-feet, then a cycle ends, all debts are considered paid, and a new cycle begins.”

This weather-dependent mindset needs to change, Hinojosa says.

What Now?

Even with the comparatively good 2024-25 year of water deliveries from Mexico, Jones characterized the situation for Texas as a dire one.

“The 2026 spring planting season here begins in February, and agriculture has only 50% of the water it needs,” he said in his statement. “Something must be done and done now, or we risk losing an entire industry.”

Hinojosa says the U.S. needs more leverage to enforce the annual water deliveries from Mexico the 1944 treaty requires. He and many others have said working treaty enforcement into the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is a potential way to prevent these situations in the future.

The trade connection isn’t new. Hinojosa notes the short water deliveries from Mexico started after the North American Free Trade Association was executed in 1994.

“With the passage of NAFTA — that started out with waiving the tariffs on about 50% of the goods from Mexico, then 10 years later eliminated the tariffs completely — that just gave Mexico free rein to increase their irrigated agriculture with the water that used to flow into the Rio Grande,” he says. “That really hurt us.”

Food, Water and Ag on the Ballot in Colorado, Texas

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 13:13:41 GMT

Presidential elections get a lot of attention. Attention starts dropping off for midterm elections. But off-year elections? Voters might not even know about them.

This year, on Nov. 4, citizens in at least 22 states will get to vote on a variety of state- and local-level positions and issues. Most ballot items deal with local nitty-gritty issues like school board members, bonds and city council representatives, but some will feature state-level issues as well.

Colorado and Texas in particular have four ballot measures that deal with food access and ag-adjacent concerns.

Colorado’s Food-Funding Props LL and MM

Every Colorado voter will be asked two statewide ballot issues: Propositions LL and MM . Both deal with food funding via tax changes, though neither create new taxes.

Prop LL asks voters if the state can keep the $12.43 million excess tax money it collected from high-income taxpayers following the creation of the state’s universal free Healthy School Meals for All program in 2022. The money would fund the program and, eventually, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the state. According to Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights, any tax revenue collected in excess of estimates proposed to voters must be returned unless citizens vote to let the state keep it.

Prop MM would reduce the tax deduction levels for the same high-income Colorado taxpayers who paid excess taxes for the HSMA program. Currently, the itemized or standard tax deductions are $12,000 for single filers and $16,000 for joint filers. The measure proposes to reduce these levels to $1,000 and $2,000 respectively. The additional revenue generated from this would also go to fund the HSMA program and SNAP. If passed by voters, the state estimates that up to $95 million could be generated by the measure.

The HSMA program provides universal free breakfasts and lunches to all Colorado public school students rather than just those students who qualify based on economic need. Eligibility for free or reduced-cost school meals for students are often tied to household eligibility for support programs, such as SNAP, WIC and Medicare. The passage of the Federal Budget Reconciliation tightened eligibility standards for such programs across the country. Nonprofit group Illuminate Colorado estimates that almost 300,000 Colorado families will lose some or all of their SNAP benefits as a result.

Every registered Colorado voter should have received a ballot by mail. Ballots must be dropped off at designated drop boxes or at polling places by 7 p.m. on Nov. 4. Voters who opt to vote in-person can do so, but they must return their unused mailed ballots. For more information, visit the Colorado secretary of state’s voter information page .

Propping Up Water Funds With Texas’ Prop 4

Proposition 4 asks Texas voters to amend the state’s constitution to get more dedicated funding for water infrastructure in the state. Water in the arid state is already a pressing agricultural issue , particularly since the state largely depends on increasingly late, short and unreliable water deliveries from Mexico . But the state’s population is also growing rapidly, according to the Texas Water Development Board , and there is already a massive funding shortfall for the state’s water infrastructure needs.

Rather than create a new tax, the amendment would earmark up to $1 billion per year of the state’s existing sales and use tax revenue for the Texas Water Fund for 20 years, starting September 2027. The Texas Water fund would get the first $1 billion in sales and use tax revenue after $46.5 billion was collected each fiscal year. According to the Texas comptroller , the state brought in $47.2 billion in sales and use tax revenue in 2024.

The Texas Water Fund was established in 2023 is administered by the TWDB, which has the mission to “ensure a secure water future for Texas.” The fund’s money can be used for water infrastructure efforts, including reservoir-building efforts, as well as funding other water-related programs TWDB already oversees.

Taking Off Texas Taxes on Animal Feed

Texans will also be asked to weigh in on Proposition 5 . This is another proposed amendment to the state’s constitution that would exempt animal feed held on a property for retail sale from property taxes.

The amendment was authored by Texas state Rep. Cody Harris, R-District 8. In his analysis document, Harris notes that “animal feed is typically exempt from taxation at each location or transaction during its life cycle,” except for when it is inventory and the amendment “seeks to address this inconsistency.”

Texas voters can vote early through Oct. 31 or vote on Election Day, Nov. 4. Texas voters can find their polling places as well as Election Day information here .

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Texas Leaders Urge Rio Grande Valley Residents to Act on Water

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 19:26:12 GMT

There are 14 days left in the current five-year water cycle between the U.S. and Mexico. According to the 1944 water treaty, Mexico must deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande River to Texas.

It almost certainly won’t make the total. As of Oct. 4 (most recent complete data), Mexico has only delivered 811,348 acre-feet.

“Currently, under the 1944 water treaty, there are no consequences to the Mexican government if they fail to deliver the water to us,” U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (TX-15) said Oct. 10 at a press event hosted by Texas International Produce Association.

De La Cruz and the event’s other speakers stressed the need to give the 1944 treaty teeth by including water delivery enforcement mechanisms into the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement , which is up for renegotiation next year. To this end, all the speakers called for action.

“We need the public to step in and make comments on the U.S. Trade Representative’s website to urge them to put [the 1944 water treaty] into the USMCA agreement,” De La Cruz said.

Anyone interested can submit via the USTR’s comment portal , docket No. USTR-2025-0004. More detail below on specifics.

Comments can be submitted no later than Oct. 30, 2025.

The impact of late and lacking water deliveries

All speakers stressed the negative impacts of the late, lacking and sometimes non-existent deliveries of water from Mexico on Texas.

“Who suffers?” De La Cruz asked. “Not the Mexican farmers. Our farmers. Our fellow community members right here in the Rio Grande Valley.”

She referenced the loss of Texas’ sugar mill as an example of that suffering and cited negative impacts on Texas ranchers and row crop farmers. Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of TIPA, quantified the impact for produce.

“This last year, our farmers put 30% less fruit and vegetables into the ground, not because they wanted to but because they were forced to,” he said.

This reduction, he said, was the result of tough decisions in the face of years of unpredictable, insufficient water deliveries. He added that Rio Grande-area growers are no longer able to grow water-intensive crops or crops that need specific watering intervals like broccoli or cauliflower or celery now due to the water situation with Mexico.

“Our farmers are not able to do the diverse mix that they usually can,” he said. “That creates all kinds of problems. The biggest problem is, when you have all these farmers planting the same two or three crops and that market goes down, the entire region goes down too.”

But it isn’t ag alone who suffers, according to Daniel Rivera, executive director of the Elsa Economic Development Corporation. Speaking from his experience in the ranching-heavy rural Hidalgo County town of Elsa, he said the impact of the lack of Mexico’s water deliveries ripples out into his community and beyond into Texas’ economy.

“Water drives production, labor and infrastructure; the very sectors that USMCA was designed to strengthen,” he said. “If we tie the 1944 water treaty to the USMCA, we create a system that assures predictability and accountability because, without reliable water, our region’s economic engine fails.”

Submitting USMCA Comments

Though De La Cruz said she didn’t know what water delivery enforcement mechanisms might look like if included in USMCA, she stressed the importance of making such mechanisms available.

“Please, submit your comments asking for the 1944 water treaty to be included into the USMCA agreement,” she said. “This is the time when the Rio Grande Valley can step up into the national light and really highlight the need for this treaty to be in the USMCA agreement.”

TIPA made some logistical recommendations for those in Texas agriculture who decide to submit comments, including:

In the “Chapters” prompt, select any that apply to your situation, but also or at least select 2, 3, 10, 24, and 31
If you are directly involved in Texas agriculture, include details such as number of acres, what you grow or raise on your operation, years in operation and number of employees you hire in your comments

Galeazzi described submitting comments as being a small time investment that could have big, beneficial impacts for the Rio Grande Valley.

“It will take 5 minutes out of your day, but if all 1.5 million citizens of the Rio Grande Valley were to take those 5 minutes, it would send a clear message to all three countries just how important this is, just how much we depend on the Rio Grande River,” he said.

“Please — citizens of the Rio Grande Valley and further afield — take the time,” he said. “Make the comments. Help save our region, save our way of life, and save our path forward.”

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Texas Ag Commissioner Champions Farmers and Schools with Farm Fresh Challenge

Fri, 10 Oct 2025 15:03:23 GMT

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller kicked off the 2025 Texas Farm Fresh Challenge on Oct. 2.

Every October, which is also Farm to School Month, schools and child care centers join the challenge to make eating local food and learning about Texas agriculture fun for children and staff. Farm Fresh Challenge participants earn recognition for serving Texas products, offering agricultural learning opportunities and highlighting their efforts on social media, according to a news release.

“Texas children should cultivate a healthy appetite for fresh food from a local farm or ranch.” Miller says. “During the Farm Fresh Challenge, children learn about local food and the men and women who produce it. Our child nutrition professionals are ensuring kids know that hard-working farmers and ranchers are behind every meal they eat.”

The Farm Fresh Challenge is a centerpiece of Miller’s Farm Fresh Initiative, a comprehensive plan to create more nutrition-program opportunities for Texas agricultural producers and increase the amount of local food in the 1 billion meals served annually in Texas in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs and the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) resources help nutrition professionals achieve any level of recognition, the release says. TDA-curated recipes include ingredients that are available from Texas producers. The department also created a success guide with a step-by-step plan for earning recognition, a tracking tool for recording achievements necessary for recognition and learning resources such as flashcards, word games and coloring pages. A social media toolkit helps participants champion their programs online, and promotional stickers and buttons are fun additions to the excitement, the release says.

The Farm Fresh Challenge also drives participation in the TDA’s Farm Fresh Network, which includes 239 agricultural producers prepared to provide Texas products for federal nutrition programs. Farm Fresh Challenge participants can use the network to find local producers and purchase their vegetables, fruits, meats, dairy and more.

For more information about the Farm Fresh Challenge, visit SquareMeals.org/FarmFreshChallenge .

Remember the Sugar Mill: Water Shortfall Looms Over Texas Ag

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 17:06:02 GMT

In February 2024, the board of directors of Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers Inc. announced Texas’ last sugar mill would close. That sugar cane harvest and milling season was to be the Santa Rosa mill’s last.

Why? Mexico had starved the area for irrigation water.

“For over 30 years, farmers in South Texas have been battling with Mexico’s failure to comply with the provisions of the 1944 Water Treaty between the U.S. and Mexico that governs water sharing between the two nations on the Colorado River and the Lower Rio Grande,” the board wrote in its Feb. 22, 2024, announcement .

“We regret the impact our closure will have on communities across the Valley, especially those closest to the mill, La Villa, Santa Rosa, and Edcouch,” it added. The board described the mill as supporting up to 100 local sugar cane growers and employing “over 500 full-time and seasonal workers annually.”

There are two months remaining in the current five-year water cycle in the 1944 treaty, and Mexico hasn’t delivered even half of the water it owes. While it will likely send some additional water this cycle, it probably won’t make up the total.

The lack of full water deliveries will hit growers in the area hard, according to experts. But the lack of water will also hit the industries that support agriculture — and the people who work in those industries or supply them.

In one way or another, experts advise to remember the sugar mill.

Short- and Long-Term Impact on Growers

As produce growers in the Rio Grande Valley look to the prospect of a fourth year of water shortages in 2026, Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association, says they will have to make some tough decisions soon.

“They’ve got to decide ‘what am I going to plant?’” he says. “We are sitting just barely better than we were last year at the same time. Not a whole lot better; we still don’t have the water we need to put in a full crop.”

The more distant future is more concerning, however.

“The longer term is perhaps an even more bleak picture for our farmers, unfortunately,” Galeazzi says. He points to the lessons of COVID when it came to big disruptions on supply chains and how markets don’t just magically rematerialize when the stressor goes away.

“If our industry is on average producing 30% less, that means someone else’s region picked up 30% more business. So, when we do get water — and we will have a hurricane and we will get water down here — we will have to fight tooth and nail to get any additional business we can. That really, in my opinion, is the big concern.”

But with growers being water-stressed for so long, that usually also means being profit-stressed.

“Folks down here aren’t all going to have the money to go out and reestablish market share, so that means they’re going to have an uphill battle trying to reclaim that space in the marketplace,” he says.

Impacting the Ecosystem of Agricultural Production

That dynamic applies to more than just growers, however.

“Everyone that goes into the ecosystem of agricultural production are all impacted by this,” Galeazzi says. This can be anyone from seed and chemical companies to the companies that make the boxes, pallets, and packaging for produce. He gave the example of trucking companies: “If they don’t have people to truck for, they’re out of business.”

Similarly, he highlighted the massive infrastructure that goes into making the H-2A program function smoothly — workman’s comp, staffing agencies, buses, housing — as an example of what can be lost.

Lucas Gregory, associate director and chief science officer of the Texas Water Resources Institute, explains the interconnected dynamic in the context of the sugar mill.

“If you have an irrigated operation, like a citrus grove or sugar cane, that has to have water, and if that water is not there, that’s it,” he says. “That’s what happened to sugar cane industry. There was not enough volume that could be guaranteed to keep the mill viable. So, the mill closed, and now with no mill, no sugar cane.”

A recent review by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service attempted to quantify what the impact of the lack of water deliveries from Mexico on citrus and vegetables in the area. The review estimates the region would lose $358.6 million annually and 6,079 total jobs lacking irrigation water.

“It’s a domino effect that’s felt within the community,” Galeazzi says. “In the four counties that make up the [Rio Grande Valley], something like 56% of the population lives outside municipal limits. That’s a lot of people who are going to be tied into agriculture in the rural community. Those are the guys who are going to get hit on top of the farmers.”

Impact on Irrigation Districts and Beyond

The effect of low water deliveries from Mexico is also real for irrigation districts.

Sonny Hinojosa, current water advocate and former general manager at the Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2 in San Juan, Texas, explains that irrigation districts in the state have two sources of revenue: the water delivery charge and a flat rate assessment. But both come down to delivering water.

“So, if we don’t have the water, we’re not generating revenue, and you have to start laying people off, and we don’t have money for improvements or maintenance,” he says.

That is the situation playing out in Delta Lake Irrigation District in Edcouch, Texas.

“That’s a big majority of my revenue to keep the doors open here and to keep my employees working and buying equipment,” says Troy Allen, the district’s general manager. “We normally rely on selling at least 80,000 to 120,000 acre feet of water annually to stay alive. And last year was a very, very tough year for us; we sold just a little under 30,000 acre feet worth of water.”

When speaking to The Packer in mid-August, he said the district has only sold 12,000 acre feet this year.

“We’ve really had to tighten our belts to survive,” he adds, explaining that his district usually employs between 51 to 55 people, but now only has 37. He says that, even with how tied into agriculture the region is, many people don’t realize “if we don’t survive, then the farming industry doesn’t survive.”

Hinojosa similarly described irrigation districts as little-known but essential entities in the Texas political landscape.

“We fall between the cracks. Municipalities get all the attention because of the population,” he says.

But negative impacts to irrigation districts are not just a farming issue; they also serve municipalities. Allen says his district serves a few small municipalities, though often at a loss. Galeazzi describes the whole network that depends on water from Mexico as likely to face adjacent economic impacts.

“If the irrigation company has no water, those guys are out of jobs. That infrastructure doesn’t get reinvestment, doesn’t get updated or modernized, further dilapidates, creates further inefficiencies,” he says. “That’s that adjacent community, that adjacent economic downturn, that’s happening as a result of this water scarcity the longer that it goes on in our region.”

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Mexico Probably Won’t Deliver All the Water it Owes

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 14:34:58 GMT

Mexico has two months left to deliver almost 1 million acre-feet of water to the U.S., but all that water probably won’t be coming, according to U.S. experts.

“Barring some kind of tropical system, that’s not going to happen,” says Sonny Hinojosa, current water advocate and former general manager at the Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2 in San Juan, Texas.

According to the 1944 treaty that governs water sharing between the U.S. and Mexico , Mexico must deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande into Texas every five years. The current cycle ends October 25. As of Aug. 25, it only delivered 747,982 acre-feet , 43% of the total.

“The only thing that can bail Mexico out is a tropical system,” Hinojosa says. “Now, this is a monsoon season in northwest Mexico and west Texas, so we’re still hopeful to get some precipitation, but that still may or may not be enough to get us 100% of the water that we need.”

The deliveries of water from Mexico the the U.S. on the Rio Grande as of Aug. 25, 2025, from the International Boundary and Water Commission.

(Chart from International Boundary and Water Commission)

Hoping for a hurricane

Ideally, Mexico should deliver 350,000 acre-feet of water to the Rio Grande for Texas annually to reach the five-year total of 1.75 million acre-feet. But the 1944 treaty allows deliveries to run on the five-year cycle in the case of extraordinary drought. Mexico has been citing this provision and delivering water later and later in the cycle , often getting into “water debt” by not delivering enough on time.

In the past few cycles, late-cycle hurricanes bumped up deliveries. In the last cycle, which ended on Oct. 24, 2020, Mexico made the total 1.75 million acre-feet in the last days due to a heavy weather event.

The last time Mexico delivered roughly a million-acre feet of water in a couple months — what’s needed now — was at the end of 2010 as a result of Hurricane Alex that hit Mexico in late June.

“That’s the last time our reservoirs were full,” Hinojosa says.

The recent history of water delivery cycles from Mexico to the U.S. on the Rio Grande as recorded by the International Boundary and Water Commission. The mostly-vertical lime green line on the far left of the chart is shows the impact of Hurricane Alex in 2010.

(Chart from the International Boundary and Water Commission)

Alex was a just-in-time hurricane for Texas as well. Hinojosa explains those full reservoirs in late 2010 protected the state’s agriculture while it was deep in drought in 2011 and 2012. But by 2013, the water had again run out.

“It’s horrible to hope for a hurricane, but sometimes it seems to be what we need to get us caught up,” says Troy Allen, general manager of the Delta Lake Irrigation District in Edcouch, Texas.

“We don’t want the devastating ones that kill people,” he adds. “But if we do not get a hurricane this year in the watershed area, it’s going to be very rough come next year.”

Lucas Gregory, associate director and chief science officer of the Texas Water Resources Institute, says the best-case scenario “would be for a system to move pretty far inland and rain up in the mountains, in Chihuahua and the Rio Conchos watershed. That’s upstream of Amistad [International Reservoir], and that’s where the best storage capacity is.”

It’s not just a drought problem

However, there’s far more than drought going on in the situation between Mexico and Texas.

Gregory highlights issues such as growing metro populations on both sides of the Rio Grande and the impacts of climate change as contributing factors.

“But the ability of Mexico to store water in country is improved,” he adds. “They’ve built a lot more reservoirs in more recent history than the U.S. has, so now they can actually hold that water there and use it for themselves.”

Hinojosa says Mexico has built eight reservoirs since the 1944 treaty. Most were built along the Rio Conchos, a major tributary that delivers a lot of water to the Rio Grande — or used to, he says.

“Now they’re capturing it and using all the water for their expanded irrigation,” Gregory adds. “They’re basically irrigating desert with our water.”

Every source The Packer talked to pointed to the expansion of Mexico’s agriculture as a reason the U.S. is not getting the water it’s owed. This is particularly the case in the dry state of Chihuahua, and especially problematic with permanent, water-hungry crops like pecans.

Hinojosa points to the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement as when the problems started.

“It opened the doors for Mexico, mainly Chihuahua, to expand their irrigated agriculture into the desert using water that used to flow into the Rio Grande,” he explains.

“They’re using our water, and I say ‘our water’ because it’s rightfully ours,” he continues. “They’re capturing that water, storing it, using it to grow crops and then bringing them to the U.S. for us. And they’re killing our farmers. They’re killing our market.”

The impact on Texas growers

Since Mexico has only delivered roughly two years’ worth of water over the course of five years, Texas farmers and growers have been in a tough place for a while. Allen explains that his growers have been “on allocation” since April of 2023, while others in neighboring irrigation districts have enforced it since 2022.

“Meaning that they’ve told their farmers they are only going to get X number of irrigations,” he says. He calls the situation unprecedented in his 22 years at the district.

“It’s been very difficult for my farmers,” he adds, saying it is especially “looking pretty scary for the citrus farmers.”

Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association, says Texas produce growers in particular are going to have to make some tough decisions.

“What it means this coming season is our growers are going to continue to veer away from water-intensive crops,” he says. “They’re not going to put in broccoli. They’re not going to put in celery. They’re probably not going to take a lot of chances on new commodities. They’re going to double down on what they know works.”

Those produce standbys will likely be crops like cabbage, onions, carrots and established citrus like oranges and grapefruit, he says. But the potential loss of produce diversity comes with its own problems.

“The diversity, the variety, the trying new things — that’s what has always helped South Texas be a region that provides commercial volumes of fresh fruits and vegetables,” Galeazzi stresses. But, without assurances about water availability, growers will likely stay in the safe lane, he adds.

“The safe lane is great, but the safe lane isn’t always profitable, and that’s challenging because now you’re coming off of two years where profits have been cut into if there’s even profits. And now, you’re about to go into year three of pretty similar conditions. It’s gut wrenching.”

What’s likely to happen in the next two months

Though Texas probably won’t get the full volume of water owed by Mexico, it will likely get some additional water this cycle. It might even amount to more than the usual annual delivery.

In an agreement signed between the U.S. State Department and Mexico in late April , Mexico pledged to deliver 324,000 to 420,000 acre-feet between the signing and October. That’s roughly a year’s worth of water delivered in five months. These deliveries are on top of the 110,000 acre-feet Mexico had delivered since the start of the current water year that started Oct. 25, 2024 and late April 2025.

If realized, the April agreement will bring the total deliveries for the current water year to 434,000 to 530,000 acre-feet, and the total five-year cycle deliveries between 854,000 and 950,000 acre-feet.

“Mexico has delivered 60.8% of the minimum that they said they would, so they’re on target to deliver this minimum of 324,000 acre feet,” Hinojosa says. “By the time this current cycle ends, it still leaves them with a deficit, but nonetheless, it has brought us some water in in recent history.”

Hinojosa praises the current administration for putting pressure on Mexico to achieve the April agreement that actually seems to be happening.

“I’ve been in this business for 38 years, and I’ve never known Mexico to do anything voluntarily before a cycle ends,” he says. “There’s a lot of pressure being put on Mexico, and that’s why they made these targets of delivering water to the U.S. before this current cycle ends.”

Needs for the future

More pressure is going to be needed to prevent this situation from repeating in the future, sources say.

“[Our administration is] going to have to implement something that puts pressure on Mexico that’s not tied to water,” Allen opines. That might mean tariffs or inclusion into the USMCA renegotiation, but whatever it is, it needs to spur Mexico to make good on their delivery requirements.

“Mexico could have fulfilled and caught up to what they owed us in 2022 because their reservoirs were full. They had a little over 3 million acre-feet in storage, and they still were over a year behind at that point in time,” Allen says. “But they didn’t deliver any of that water to the U.S.”

Hinojosa says a mindset change is needed in Mexico.

“We need Mexico to treat us, the United States, as we treat them on the Colorado River,” he says. The same 1944 treaty that dictate’s Mexico’s water deliveries to the U.S. on the Rio Grande also dictates the U.S.’s deliveries of water to Mexico on the Colorado River.

He says the U.S. takes Mexico’s allocation “off the top” of the available water in the Colorado River, then divides the rest among the seven U.S. states that rely on it. But Mexico does not return the favor, he adds.

“That has to change,” Hinojosa says. “Mexico needs to recognize that the treaty calls for a minimum delivery to United States of 350,000 acre-feet per year — that’s a minimum delivery — and they need to set that water aside and deliver that water to United States.”

Galeazzi also advocates for a mindset change here in the U.S. around not only Texas’ water issues with Mexico, but all of the country’s water issues. He describes the U.S. as having put water infrastructure on the back burner, adding that the country has “hamstrung ourselves” with excessive and burdensome regulations.

“We absolutely need to pressure Mexico,” he says. “But, if we want to prevent this from happening, the other thing we have to do is we — as a region, a state and a country — need to get serious and make some very big investments in the infrastructure of water.”

Your next reads:

APHIS Reduces Mexfly Quarantine in Texas

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 18:53:42 GMT

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) say the agencies amended Mexican fruit fly quarantines in the state.

These include the Harlingen-Sebastian Mexfly quarantine in Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties and the Edinburg-Palmview-Donna Mexfly quarantine in Hidalgo County and removed the Sullivan City Mexfly quarantine in Hidalgo County.

On July 1, APHIS and TDA reduced the Harlingen-Sebastian quarantine by 62 square miles, including 135 acres of commercial citrus, after three generations had elapsed since the date of the last Mexfly detection in that portion, based on a degree-day model.

On July 14, APHIS and TDA further reduced the Harlingen-Sebastian quarantine and separated the Harlingen-Sebastian quarantine into distinct Harlingen and Sebastian quarantines. The reduction totaled 194 square miles, including 377 acres of commercial citrus after three generations had elapsed since the date of the last Mexfly detection in that portion, based on a degree-day model. The Harlingen quarantine is 101 square miles and includes 941 acres of commercial citrus. The Sebastian quarantine is 71 square miles and includes five acres of commercial citrus.

Also on July 14, APHIS and TDA reduced the Edinburg-Palmview-Donna quarantine by 65 square miles after three generations had elapsed since the date of the last Mexfly detection in that portion, based on a degree-day model. The amended quarantine area is 365 square miles and includes 8,755 acres of commercial citrus. On the same day, APHIS and TDA removed the Sullivan City quarantine. This action released 71 square miles from quarantine. There was no commercial citrus in this quarantine area. APHIS says release from quarantine occurred after three generations elapsed since the date of the last detection, based on a degree-day model.

APHIS says it is working with the Texas Department of Agriculture to eradicate transient Mexfly populations in the state.

APHIS says its exotic fruit flies web page contains descriptions and maps of the Mexfly quarantine areas and all current federal fruit fly quarantine areas.

Texas Watermelon Association Launches New Website, Logo

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 15:51:41 GMT

The Texas Watermelon Association (TWA), representing watermelon growers and shippers across the Lone Star State, has launched a refreshed brand identity, including a new logo and redesigned website .

As a top five watermelon-producing state in the U.S., Texas plays a major role in feeding the nation’s appetite for this iconic summertime fruit, according to a news release. TWA says the new look and online experience reflect its mission to support the state’s vibrant watermelon industry while connecting with consumers, retailers and partners in fresh and engaging ways.

“Texas watermelons are big, bold and rooted in tradition — and our new brand reflects that,” says TWA President Kristin Story. “This update brings new energy to our mission and helps share the pride, hard work and community behind every watermelon grown in Texas.”

Kristin Story is the president of the Texas Watermelon Association.

(Photo courtesy of the Texas Watermelon Association)

The redesigned website aims to provide an easy-to-navigate platform for industry members and consumers alike. Visitors will find tools and information that highlight the value of Texas-grown watermelons, including:

Grower and shipper spotlights.
Industry and retailer resources.
Nutrition facts and educational materials.
News on events, promotions and the annual Texas Watermelon Queen program.

The launch of the new brand marks a strategic step forward as TWA continues its commitment to grow awareness and appreciation for Texas-grown watermelons — from the field to the fork, according to the release.

“We’re not just modernizing our brand — we’re amplifying the voices of Texas watermelon producers,” Story says. “This is about celebrating the generations of farming families who make Texas a leader in the watermelon industry.”

The TWA is a nonprofit organization founded in 1961 to support and promote the Texas watermelon industry. Through education, marketing and advocacy, TWA says it works to ensure the success of its growers, shippers and members across the state. The association also hosts the annual Texas Watermelon Queen program and partners with national organizations to promote watermelon consumption year-round.

Tomato Suspension Agreement is an ‘Economic Engine,’ says FPAA President Lance Jungmeyer

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 20:45:59 GMT

Industry opinions differ on the best path forward for the Tomato Suspension Agreement, with the Florida Tomato Exchange, Texas tomato growers, greenhouse growers and industry organizations all weighing in as the agreement nears the end of its 90-day implementation period.

Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, recently shared his take on the Tomato Suspension Agreement with The Packer via email.

Tomato Suspension Agreement is an “economic engine,” says FPAA President Lance Jungmeyer.

(Photo courtesy of Lance Jungmeyer)

You’ve said the Tomato Suspension Agreement is an economic engine that contributes more than $8 billion annually to the U.S. economy and supports nearly 50,000 jobs across multiple industries. What do you say to those who argue the Department of Commerce has found Mexican exporters have dumped tomatoes into the U.S. market below their cost of production and by margins as high as 273%?

Jungmeyer: Since the 2019 agreement took effect, the Department of Commerce has not found a single violation of that agreement, including the requirement to eliminate dumping. The 273% margin refers to data from 1995. Obviously, the market has changed considerably over the past 30 years.

Do you see this as a Florida tomato grower versus Mexico tomato grower issue?

This is not a Florida versus Mexico issue. Rather, it reflects a deeper divide between Florida and states like Texas and Arizona. It’s also a debate between traditional open-field cultivation of mature green tomatoes and the innovative greenhouse production of vine-ripe tomatoes.

Over 30 members of Congress from both parties and both chambers and from several states have urged the Department of Commerce to maintain the agreement. Nearly 500 U.S. industry associations and companies have likewise asked the Department of Commerce to maintain the agreement.

In the fall of 2023, the Arizona Legislature passed a resolution in support of the 2019 Tomato Suspension Agreement, and just last week, Governor Abbott of Texas signed a resolution into law in the state that underscores the importance of the agreement to the economy of Texas. The truth is that U.S. businesses and U.S. consumers will be the losers if the agreement is terminated and not renegotiated and modernized.

What is your response to Florida tomato growers who say Mexican tomato imports have used unfair trade practices to increase volume to over 70% of the U.S. market?

The 2019 agreement and its predecessor never guaranteed anyone a specific share of the market. Instead, it leveled the playing field through higher prices.

Tomato imports from Mexico are not the cause of the loss in market share by Florida tomato growers. Adverse weather events, labor shortages, soil salinity and urbanization in Florida have all caused a loss of market share. In recent years, Florida growers have invested tens of millions of dollars in tomato growing operations in Mexico, which have contributed to the shifts in market share and increase in imports.

Are you confident the U.S. can enforce fair trade laws for tomatoes imported from Mexico?

Again, the Department of Commerce has not found a single violation of the 2019 agreement after conducting numerous and rigorous monitoring and enforcement actions since the agreement took effect. Growers in Mexico and their U.S. selling agents have answered over 300 questionnaires since 2019, submitted over 5,000 quarterly certifications, and participated in five intensive annual reviews. In fact, the 2019 agreement has more enforcement and monitoring mechanisms than any other suspension agreement that the Department of Commerce administers, including an agreement covering uranium imports from Russia.

How would the termination of the Tomato Suspension Agreement impact Mexico-U.S. tomato trade?

A cash deposit of 17% will apply to most tomato imports from Mexico if the Department of Commerce terminates the agreement, and some form of a deposit would be in effect for at least two and a half years. While the Department of Commerce might ultimately refund some of those deposits, imports would still need to have the capital to pay those deposits for two and a half years. The truth is that most growers and importers in this industry do not have those financial resources at their disposal.

Moreover, the deposit rate could increase after two and a half years, requiring all importers to then also pay the difference for the two-and-a-half-year look back period, putting further financial strain on importers. This makes the surety requirement far more risky, costly and burdensome. In view of these costs, and the uncertainty regarding total duties owed, many growers will simply get out of the business of growing tomatoes, causing a dramatic decline in the supply of tomatoes from Mexico.

Having imports from Mexico is a good thing, particularly because Florida is prone to adverse weather events, soil issues, labor shortages and rapid urbanization.

And in a market that increasingly prefers vine-ripened and specialty tomatoes, termination of the Tomato Suspension Agreement, which is anticipated to reduce the supply of such tomatoes, would send prices skyrocketing as demand remains constant or increases. Tens of thousands of jobs could be lost in the U.S., and over $8 billion in economic activity for the U.S. economy could be lost.

Job losses in Mexico stemming from the termination of the agreement could also be detrimental to the U.S.-Mexico relationship. The government of Mexico has already raised the possibility of retaliatory measures on U.S. pork and poultry exports to Mexico if the Department of Commerce terminates the agreement. Moreover, growers in Mexico employ hundreds of thousands of migrant workers on their farms and provide them with housing, health care, child care and schooling for their children, along with fair wages and other benefits. If growers in Mexico are forced to cut jobs for those workers due to the termination of the agreement, those workers could look for employment in the U.S., which has the potential to undermine the border security gains obtained by the administration since January 2025.

The bottom line is that the 2019 agreement provides certainty for the market, which would disappear if the agreement goes away. In 2019 there was only a preliminary determination, and the agreement was actively being renegotiated. Moreover, deposits were imposed in 2019 during the summer, when the volume of tomato imports from Mexico are historically low. The circumstances were temporary and much different.

In a recent interview with The Packer, Robert Guenther, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange, said “the evidence of dumping and injury is overwhelming.” What do you say to that?

The Department of Commerce’s valid dumping findings are based on 30-year-old data. The truth is that the department has found zero violations, and the anti-dumping duties are based on an investigation performed on a few companies — most of which no longer exist — back in 1995, when less than 10% of the U.S. population had email.

The 2019 Tomato Suspension Agreement and its predecessors have leveled the playing field. In response to that level playing field, the Mexican industry invested in itself, building state-of-the-art growing and packing facilities and developing supply chains that met changing consumer preferences in the U.S. for specialty and vine-ripened tomatoes. U.S. importers working with Mexican growers have simply outcompeted Florida. Florida does not have a price problem; they have a failure to innovate problem.

Your next read:

Greenhouse Growers Call for Modernization of Tomato Suspension Agreement, Not Termination

Stenzel: 5 Past Tomato Suspension Agreements Did Not Fail

Texas quarantine areas for Mexican fruit fly expand

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 21:00:34 GMT

On April 23, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued a news release regarding recent quarantine actions taken in Texas against the Mexican fruit fly (Anastrepha ludens; Mexfly).

On April 1, 2025, APHIS and the Texas Department of Agriculture expanded the Mexfly quarantine in Sullivan City, Hidalgo and Starr Counties, Texas. On April 4, APHIS and TDA established a Mexfly quarantine in Roma, Starr County; expanded and consolidated the Edinburg and Palmview Mexfly quarantines in Hidalgo County; expanded the Harlingen-Sebastian Mexfly quarantine in Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties; and expanded the Donna Mexfly quarantine in Hidalgo County.

APHIS and TDA expanded the Sullivan City quarantine by 24 square miles to 79 square miles following the confirmed detection on March 12 of Mexfly larvae in sour orange fruits on a residential property. APHIS and TDA established the Sullivan City quarantine on Jan. 28 following detections of a wild mated female Mexfly and Mexfly larvae. The quarantine area contains no commercial agriculture.

APHIS and TDA established the Roma quarantine following the confirmed detection on March 25 of Mexfly larvae in sweet orange fruits on a residential property. The quarantine area is 43 square miles and contains no commercial agriculture.

APHIS and TDA expanded the Edinburg and Palmview quarantines by 115 square miles, resulting in a consolidated quarantine of 255 square miles, henceforth named the Edinburg-Palmview quarantine, following the confirmed detections between March 18 and April 2 of Mexfly larvae in sour orange fruits on residential properties in Edinburg and McAllen and in grapefruits in a commercial grove in Mission. The consolidated quarantine area contains 8,705 acres of commercial citrus.

APHIS and TDA established the Edinburg quarantine on Aug. 30, 2024, following the detection of Mexfly larvae, expanded the quarantine on Oct. 17 of the same year following the detections of additional wild Mexflies and reduced the quarantine on Jan. 8, 2025, after three generations elapsed since the date of the last detection in one portion. APHIS and TDA established the Palmview quarantine on Feb. 10, following the detections of Mexfly larvae and a wild mated female Mexfly.

APHIS and TDA expanded the Harlingen-Sebastian quarantine by 39 square miles to 442 square miles following the confirmed detection on March 20 of a wild mated female Mexfly in a trap on a sweet orange tree on a residential property in Lyford. The quarantine area contains 1,474 acres of commercial citrus.

APHIS and TDA established the Sebastian quarantine on March 21, 2024, following the detection of a wild mated female Mexfly, and the Harlingen quarantine on March 26, 2024, following the detections of six wild mated female Mexflies. APHIS and TDA amended these individual quarantines on April 3, May 20, June 27, Aug. 2 and Aug. 29; consolidated these two quarantines on Sept. 27; and then further amended the consolidated quarantine on Oct. 11, Nov. 1 and Dec. 6, 2024, and Jan. 17, Feb. 7 and Feb. 26, 2025. These were either expansions following the detections of additional wild Mexflies or removals after three generations elapsed since the dates of the last detections in some portions.

APHIS and TDA expanded the Donna quarantine by 14 square miles to 182 square miles following the confirmed detection on March 13 of Mexfly larvae in sour orange fruits on a residential property in Edinburg. APHIS and TDA established the Donna quarantine on August 15, 2024, following the detection Mexfly larvae, and expanded the quarantine on Sept. 28 and Nov. 18, 2024, and Jan. 17, 2025, following the detections of additional Mexflies. The quarantine area contains 1,860 acres of commercial citrus.

APHIS is applying safeguarding measures and restrictions on the interstate movement of regulated articles to prevent the spread of Mexfly to non-infested areas of the U.S., as well as to prevent the entry of these fruit flies into foreign trade. APHIS is working with TDA to eradicate transient Mexfly populations following program guidelines for survey, treatment and regulatory actions.

The APHIS exotic fruit flies website contains descriptions and maps of the quarantine areas, as well as all current federal fruit fly quarantine areas. APHIS will publish a notice of these changes in the Federal Register.

How tariffs could directly impact Texas fresh produce

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 13:54:39 GMT

“It is absolutely one of the more interesting times, I believe, to be on the international side of fresh produce,” said Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association, which represents the business, economic and political interests of Texas-grown fruits and vegetables.

Galeazzi has a front-row seat to the potential impact of the Trump administration’s proposed 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico.

“We haven’t seen a tariff situation on fresh produce out of Mexico in almost 30 years since the introduction of the North American Free Trade Agreement,” he said.

TIPA members, which include fresh produce importers, have expressed confusion and concern about the impacts of these proposed tariffs on their businesses. Galeazzi said a challenge has been trying to understand these implications, as no information has been published yet in the Federal Register to help the association and its members prepare and plan.

Galeazzi said TIPA has relied on U.S. custom brokers to help guesstimate how tariffs would work under U.S. Section 332 of the Tariff Act of 1930. But the proposed 25% tariffs on Mexican imports, he said, will fall under the Emergency Economic Action clause.

“There is some level of uncertainty about what’s involved with that,” he said.

This uncertainty makes it difficult for importers to predict exactly what will be needed to comply with the tariffs if they’re enacted, Galeazzi said, and any potential slowdown has a direct impact on the quality of the fresh produce being imported.

“When the [fresh produce] comes off the tree or the bush or out of the ground, they’re ready to go,” he said. “And you can’t stand around figuring out, ‘Did I get the tariff system right? Did I bill it correctly? Did I put enough into the payment system?’ You can do that with electronics or manufactured goods. You can’t do that with fresh produce.”

Dante Galeazzi

(Photo courtesy of the Texas International Fresh Produce Association)

Benefits of NAFTA

Galeazzi said the availability of fresh produce in the U.S. has expanded significantly since NAFTA’s enactment in 1994.

“Now you see the presence of fresh fruits and vegetables on grocery store shelves 12 months out of the year, whereas prior to NAFTA, it was very common that you saw seasonality,” he said. “That’s because of the international trade.”

NAFTA has also boosted the importance of Texas in the fresh produce supply chain, he said.

“Texas is now a loading location year-round for grocery stores and foodservice, because they can secure what they need all year long — not just when Texas is growing it, but when we’re complemented by Mexico, when we’re complemented by the arrivals of Colombia and other countries from Latin America out of the Port of Houston,” he said.

Galeazzi said for every dollar of fresh produce that comes across the Texas border, it generates more than $2 of economic impact to the state. Combined with the availability of Texas-grown fresh produce, it’s a win-win for the domestic producer and the international producer, he said.

“If you’re a grocery store, you’re able to fill up your store shelves and get everything you need in one state,” he said. “You’re not sending your truck to three or four states to fill your grocery list. You’re sending your truck to three or four warehouses within 20 miles, and you’re filling that grocery list.”

The availability of both domestic produce and imported produce is a major advantage for Texas, Galeazzi said.

“That advantage, then, is not only for the industry, not only for the state, but it also becomes an advantage to the consumer, because the consumers get fresher food options with lower food miles,” he said.

Unintended consequences

If the proposed tariffs do go into place, it will threaten certain commodities, Galeazzi said. The fresh produce industry supplements California-grown avocados with imported avocados. Availability of bananas, limes, mangoes and even berries in the offseason could all be in jeopardy if the Trump administration enacts the tariffs.

“The other challenge too is, yes, we grow certain fruits and vegetables here in the U.S., but we do it during a certain season,” he said. “We are not going to have a lot of the fruits and vegetables that we want right now until it gets closer to May, when a lot of the domestic season opens up; you’re going to have some leafy greens and some squashes, but you’re not going to have anywhere near the diversity of commodities that you are used to seeing in the grocery stores if we do this.”

Galeazzi said TIPA and other organizations have tried to communicate to the Trump administration and legislators the direct impact of the 25% tariffs.

“One of the things that we’re trying to make obvious to our legislators is that tariffs aren’t just a 25% tax on that product, it’s a 25% tax that’s paid upfront,” he said.

An example is to look at an import of 50 loads of avocados that’s worth roughly $100,000 each load. Now, that truckload costs $125,000 with the tariff. And the importer must put the 25% tariff on the load’s value within a month.

“You’re putting up $32,000 or $35,000 for every single truckload — 50 truckloads a week if you’re a decent-sized avocado company,” Galeazzi said. “How many companies have that many millions of dollars’ worth of capital they can just pump out for payments in 30 days? Let me tell you, that’s a super-small number.”

He said that will immediately close the valve of the fresh fruits and vegetables arriving in the country.

“That could not come at a worse time when you have more and more Americans dealing with diet-related diseases, many of which are preventable,” he said. “Should they be eating more fruits and vegetables every day?”

(Photo: Brastock Images, Adobe Stock)

Galeazzi said the other consequence is that the tariffs will likely increase the price of the remaining produce in the marketplace, given its scarcity.

“That’s just Mexico and Canada arrivals at 25%. You are not going to have the benefit of being able to switch to another country easily, because you are looking at a reciprocal tariff plan which goes into place, possibly by early April,” he said. “Almost all Latin American countries have a VAT — value-added tax — and those have been identified as ‘tariffs’ by the current administration. Those countries are going to be subject to a tariff requirement anyway, so you don’t really have any other options to go to for your fresh produce. So, that’s why I’m saying you’re going to be choking off the supply of fresh produce coming into the country.”

Another challenge is that, in many cases, these tariffs will damage hard-fought relationships with other countries in the produce supply chain, Galeazzi said, and those countries facing tariffs will seek out other buyers for their produce.

“When you disrupt supply chains, new supply chains are created and those [previous] relationships become fragmented,” he said. “Even though it wasn’t necessarily the suppliers’ fault, they are — when you look at the system — deemed unreliable because they’re exposed to the potential for tariffs, and that does absolutely disrupt the relationship. It creates additional confusion. It adds a world of variables that complicate everything that comes to fresh produce.”

Challenges abound

“It has been a very tumultuous start to the year,” Galeazzi said. “I think that’s probably an understatement to say the least, because it’s not just tariffs. We have so many different challenges.”

One of those challenges is labor. Galeazzi said he hopes the attention on labor can help the fresh produce industry and agriculture push forward solutions to the H-2A program. Another issue has been the pause in USDA grant funding for its Market Access Program, and the reduction in USDA staffing has also impacted the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service and Agricultural Research Service.

When asked what’s keeping him up at night, Galeazzi cited not only the threats of 25% tariffs on imported goods from Mexico but also water shortages in Mexico that have slowed production, along with domestic water shortages and the potential that tariffs could impact the availability of fresh produce in the U.S., which could directly shift the gains the fresh produce industry has made with consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.

“My concern is, if you start adding tariffs and you start limiting production and you start limiting our trade partners, do you then again increase the cost of fruits and vegetables, and this time when you increase that cost, do we lose that momentum and go backward?” he said. “Those were hard-fought gains. Those were challenges that we had been working on changing for a long time in this industry and now, unfortunately, we are at a precipice where we could see all those gains be lost, and then some.”

Your next read: Mexico’s Sheinbaum pushes for USMCA deal as tariff deadline nears

Texas onion industry highlights season wins

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 17:53:17 GMT

The Texas onion industry is touting a successful season for TX1015 sweet onions due to marketing activities that drew a larger audience empowering people to support local foods, according to a news release. These include an online social influencer program, sweepstakes, restaurant week promotion, KSAT TV partnership and more.

As digital marketing drives grocery sales, enacting a strong influencer program was key to reaching millennial and younger age brackets, the release said. The creators included recipe developers, authors and bloggers passionate about creating stunning meals — with local ingredients at the heart of their cooking. The total number of reactions including views, likes, comments, shares and engagement was 343,165.

The Third Annual Restaurant Week returned to the Rio Grande Valley with 17 food trucks and restaurants that created dishes using the TX1015 sweet onion, the release said. The campaign encouraged establishments to take their cooking skills to new heights by making creative recipes while staying true to their cooking style.

This year a finale event was held at the McAllen Food Truck Park where attendees gathered to celebrate local food, music and arts and had the opportunity to taste the sweet creations for themselves. Online promotions for the event and public voting garnered a 2,200% increase in brand awareness, the release said.

“Our marketing activities are created to spark a connection between the product and the consumer,” Texas International Produce Association President Dante Galeazzi said in the release. “It is imperative to tell the story of our state vegetable, and by enacting a range of well-developed and specifically targeted tactics, we are expanding the sweet onion category one layer at a time.”

The team also released “Sweet Flavors of The Lone Star State: A TX1015 Cookbook,” highlighting trending recipes, fun facts and educational tidbits. The book intends to provide the average shopper the tools to find their inner chef, the release aid. From main dishes to enticing snacks, the recipe collection showcases the nutritious and delicious attributes the TX1015 offers and the diversity of its use.

For the second year in a row, David Elder, host of “Texas Eats,” created an on-air segment along with social posts highlighting the TX1015 sweet onion, the release said. Historical facts, a raw onion taste test and a new recipe were just a few examples of the content Edler posted. The partnership reached current and future Texas shoppers looking for new items to add to their grocery list. The total social reactions were 52,169.

“On behalf of the Texas Onion Industry, we are proud of the accomplishments we saw from this year’s campaign,” Galeazzi said. “Texas grows by more than 850 citizens per day, which is a lot of new people to introduce the TX1015 sweet onion to. By establishing stronger connections within major Texas and national markets, we continue to increase recognition and consumer preference, putting Texas onions in a great position for next season.”

This work was funded, in whole or in part, by the USDA Agriculture Marketing Service under the Specialty Crop Block Grant administered by the Texas Department of Agriculture.

For more information, crop reports, updates, marketing tools, videos, recipes and everything TX1015 sweet onions, visit tx1015.com .

NatureSweet sold to investment firm that seeks to ‘accelerate growth’

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 18:14:54 GMT

Snacking tomato icon and greenhouse-grown vegetable leader NatureSweet is changing hands.

Food and beverage venture capital firm Silver Venture recently announced the sale of San Antonio-based controlled environment agriculture company to the food and beverage-focused investment firm Blue Road Capital. This sale marks a new chapter for NatureSweet, which has been owned by Silver Ventures since its inception.

“We are excited to join the Blue Road Capital’s portfolio. As a leader in controlled environment agriculture, NatureSweet is looking forward to collaborating and expanding our scope with a firm that has extensive expertise in natural foods and agricultural markets,” Rodolfo Spielmann, president and CEO of NatureSweet, said in a statement.

Blue Road will help amplify NatureSweet’s purpose of transforming the lives of agricultural workers in North America, Spielmann added.

Founded in 1990, NatureSweet is best known for its top-selling branded snacking tomatoes, as well as its burgeoning greenhouse-grown peppers and cucumbers categories, according to the release. Additionally, under the stewardship of Silver Ventures, the greenhouse grower’s commitment to improving agricultural standards drove the company to become the largest CEA company to date to achieve three comprehensive social responsibility and environmental certifications: fair trade certification, Equitable Food Initiative certification and B Corp certification, according to the release.

Related news: NatureSweet achieves B Corp certification

“NatureSweet was built on a vision of agricultural workers ‘who look up,’” Kit Goldsbury, chairman of Silver Ventures, said in the release. “Everyone is proud to have been a part of our associates’ journey to not only transform their own lives but also to be a force in the transformation of the entire industry.”

Capitalizing on brand strength to expand footprint

An independent firm specializing in vertically integrated food and agriculture business, Blue Road Capital acquired NatureSweet to capitalize on what it sees as the strength of NatureSweet’s brand and accelerate growth potential through vertical integration, innovation and expanding distribution channels, according to a news release.

“We are confident in Blue Road’s ability to lead NatureSweet into a promising future,” Bryant Ambelang, CEO of Silver Ventures and former executive chairman of NatureSweet, said in the release. “They understand the value of this company lies in its people and are committed to the principles of growing the best-tasting produce through transforming the lives of agricultural workers.”

NatureSweet is transitioning into capable and caring hands, Ambelang said.

Related news: NatureSweet restructures sales team

Farming as a dance: How Revol Greens' VP of operations grows greens in Texas

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 21:06:49 GMT

Scanning a sea of tender baby arugula, tatsoi and red leaf lettuce stretching up toward filtered sunlight, for a moment I forgot that I wasn’t in Salinas. Far from America’s Salad Bowl, I was, in fact, in a greenhouse right in the middle of Texas, about 60 miles north of Austin, in a region known more for its barbecue than fresh produce.

Earlier this year in May, Revol Greens cut the ribbon on a 20-acre greenhouse in Temple, Texas, a sizeable footprint for a controlled environment agriculture lettuce operation by any measure. But the fact that the grower’s newest greenhouse was built in an area not known for growing greens was just another sign of Revol Greens’ audacious expansion plans.

I was lucky enough to spend the day touring Revol Greens’ newest greenhouse in Temple, Texas, with its vice president of operations and recent Texas transplant, John Carkoski. The Midwest native has grown with the young CEA company for three years and counting. Carkoski began managing Revol Greens’ Minnesota farm and, this spring, has been charged with leading the launch of Revol Greens’ newest CEA farm facility in Texas.

What I learned watching the world from Carkoski’s measured, long-term view, was that while Revol Greens’ Texas expansion was bold, it was also a part of a long chain of strategic decisions by the greenhouse grower, thoughtfully expanding the footprint of its CEA facilities to span the U.S.

Observing a wide swath of salad greens flourish under the carefully calibrated temperature, humidity and irrigation sensors of Revol Greens’ greenhouse, I was beginning to understand the draw.

Interview edited for length and clarity.

The Packer: What brought you to Revol Greens?

Carkoski: I grew up in this industry. My dad was a farmer, and my grandfather was a farmer in Nebraska. My dad was a classically trained pianist and musician. He wanted to be a priest, then he met my mom and that went out the door. He realized you couldn’t raise a family properly on a music teacher salary, so he went back in the wholesale business.

I tried to not work in produce, but I got pulled back into it.

Revol Greens reached out to me right when COVID-19 really started with the shutdown, and they were expanding their Minnesota operation from 2.5 acres to 10 acres. I knew one of the guys that came over to Revol Greens — he and I had met before on the wholesale side — he said, “Hey, John, we need somebody like you to help facilitate this growth.” So, I came on, ran the Minnesota facility for three years and then recently got promoted to VP of operations. I now oversee all the greenhouses, including this one in Temple that we just started in the past few months.

Could you share some of the factors that led to building your next greenhouse in Temple, Texas?

The population is a big part of why we chose Temple. It’s in the middle of the Dallas-Houston-Austin-San Antonio triangle. It’s one of the most populated areas in the country, so that gives us the ability to reach so many people.

So being able to service these customers, but [it] also complements our other greenhouses in California, Georgia and Minnesota — it’s in the middle.

It sounds like you’re building a nationwide coverage strategy.

Our greenhouses are not right next to each other, so strategically as we look across the country, we can say, “OK, we have a place here that can service this, we have a place here that can service that,” and you can start to see that overlap of who’s going to service which different areas in which other major metropolitan areas.

How did your team design your facilities to withstand the brutal Texas heat and still be profitable?

Our greenhouse is a climate-controlled facility. When you drove into a facility here you drove by that massive water tank. As far as I understand, that is the largest cold water storage tank in the world.

This facility is designed to withstand as much of the heat as possible; it’s really meant to really cover all the averages. We have excess cooling and ventilation on the roof. We have a computer control system and climate system that’s constantly monitoring and adjusting our growers and putting their inputs into what they want to see in different areas, and along with the cooling system, it will allow that to go through and control the different areas and departments to get into the climate that we need.

That’s impressive. Does the water tank also reduce your overall water usage?

We have a water catchment system throughout the entire greenhouse, and you can see the ducting coming outside of the building. Across entire greenhouse, any rain on the on the roof is get collected and gets pumped for a water storage. The water goes through a UV filtration system to clean it and sanitize, and then from there it goes into our ponds and our growing systems and then internally we have water recirculation. We’re constantly recirculating that water throughout our facility. What that means is that we can grow with 90% less water than outdoor conventional practices.

When do you harvest the lettuce?

It depends on the variety. It’s a constant harvest — we’re seeding, growing and harvesting 365 days a year. It’s a constant cycle.

How do you manage the 365-day harvest and how does the Texas facility fit into the bigger picture at Revol Greens?

It really comes down to planning. I always make the analogy: We try to get to “Groundhog Day” — you know, the Bill Murray movie? We want to wake up and it’s the same thing every single day. We want to seed and pack the same way, making only slight changes. The goal is to create the same cadence every day.

I love that! It sounds like the recipe for an efficient operation: make a good use of everyone’s time and see what your operation is capable of.

We work with our growers so that we have a constant flow of the same amount. We’re having to get that feel part of it — we are getting the operation to be as effective as possible.

I imagine it must be satisfying to lead operations when everything is in sync.

It is. It’s impressive. And the most impressive thing is that this facility is going to be doing in about two months what it took us about three years to do in Minnesota.

It’s so cool to see our employees witness what’s happening, and they’re getting confident in their practices. They’re understanding what’s going on, and [it’s the] same with our growing team; it’s just it’s amazing to see it all come to fruition.

Looking ahead, what are you hoping to see happen? Any challenges you see coming down the pike?

For this particular farm facility, we still have to learn the facility and how it responds to changes in weather and changes in our internal climate. In Minnesota, we have a very good feel for that facility because we’ve been there for so long.

Here, we’re still trying to figure out exactly what it’s going to look like in two months and in three months. We’re still gaining this knowledge, but I’m excited because, to me, that’s an exciting challenge that we’ll figure that out as a team. It is a very fun dance.

Grown in glass: How Abby Lange cultivates tomatoes in the Chihuahuan Desert

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 13:15:54 GMT

Staring out at the vast, arid expanse of Far West Texas, evokes images of tumbleweeds, not tomatoes. Greenhouse grower Village Farms believes that, despite first impressions, it is possible to grow food in the desert – you just have the right tools and the right team.

Case in point, the CEA grower has been growing fresh produce in the Chihuahuan Desert for almost three decades, supported by innovative technology and a dedicated, passionate team. The area of Texas that Village Farms grows in lies just north of the U.S. and Mexico border and is also known as the Big Bend or Far West Texas region. Here, Village Farms is rolling out 112 million pounds of fresh produce a year, all from its greenhouses located just outside the towns of Marfa and Fort Davis, Texas, according to a news release.

Village Farms’ enclosed glass greenhouses tower with plants that are thriving inside its four walls, while just outside the glass walls is the inhospitable desert climate of Big Bend. The CEA grower’s cultivation methods inside their soilless greenhouses boasts higher yields, use less land and significantly fewer precious natural resources—such as water— compared to open field farming. This is because they grow hydroponically and can recirculate their irrigation water repeatedly, according to the release.

Both Marfa and Fort Davis, Texas, are at an average elevation of approximately 4,700 feet above sea level, with temperatures that can range from a high of more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit to a low of 0 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the time of year. Growing commercially in this region characterized by extremes is uncommon, but once you get to know some of the farmers who brave this climate and manage Village Farms’ CEA greenhouses, it’s clear that growing under glass in the Chihuahuan Desert is nothing short of extraordinary.

Meet Marfa facilities manager Abby Lange

Managing all this beauty and precision with years of CEA expertise under her belt is farmer Abby Lange. Lange leads cultivation at Village Farms as the Marfa greenhouse facility manager.

Lange joined Village Farms over 8 years ago as an intern while pursuing a bachelor’s of science degree in plant science with a minor in sustainable agriculture and greenhouse management emphasis at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said the release. She worked her way up through the company and, today, Lange manages 20 acres of greenhouse grown tomatoes-on-the-vine destined for local markets and customers such as Texas-based H-E-B.

“As an intern I saw a broad range of jobs and work within the company, from packing to biological control to human resources, but instead of merely studying these areas of expertise and helping with basic tasks, I now coordinate them all,” Lange said in the release. “It falls to me to ensure that communication is smooth among the greenhouse, packhouse, maintenance, our integrated pest management team, human resources, sales and our safety and compliance teams and that the work of all these teams is optimized considering the current climate, the market, our staff and the crop.”

These efforts contribute to Lange’s end goal, which is to streamline the company’s processes and expand the growing season, producing tomatoes more weeks out of the year, said the release.

Not content with just one objective, Lange’s sees automation and data utilization as other emerging growth opportunities for Village Farms in Texas.

“Everyone is short on staff these days, so we can use automation to position our staff more effectively while making their jobs less physically intensive,” she said in the release. “We have decades of climate, yield, and sales data at our disposal, and we are using it more and more, but I think we can implement more advanced analytical models to leverage all that data.”

Analyzing data, along with cultivating tomatoes and managing staff makes for a varied and interesting day-to-day in Lange’s role as facility manager and one of her favorite aspects of her job, she said.

“I absolutely love telling our employees when they’re doing a great job or thanking them for what they do. Seeing the crop well cared-for, or a case of beautiful tomatoes beautifully packaged, gives me an energy like nothing else, so I make a point of reflecting that energy back to the people who make it possible to grow tomatoes in the desert day after day,” Lange said in the release.

The leadership position not come without challenges, however, especially considering the climate in the region.

“I’ve heard visiting growers say that the crops and yields we achieve shouldn’t technically be possible here, so it’s something to be proud of,” she said.

The extreme weather in Far West Texas poses unique problems for growers like Lange.

“Sometimes it’s wind, sometimes it’s hail, sometimes it’s pathogens or pests, but in any agricultural effort, there are many factors inherently outside of our control,” Lange said in the release.

That said, Lange still believes that growing in the extreme climate of Texas has its benefits.

Related news: Texas watermelon harvest bouncing back from a rough 2022

“I’ve learned more about the costs of indoor or vertical farming, enough to know that it’s the free, carbon-neutral sunlight in our farming operation that is the true blessing,” she said in the release.

And thankfully in Far West Texas there is an abundance of clear skies and sunshine for Lange and the team at Village Farms to grow fresh tomatoes for consumers across the U.S. to enjoy.

Who says steaks must be meat? Chef and mushroom evangelist takes on Texas barbecue crowd

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 15:01:35 GMT

When gearing up for cult-favorite Central Texas barbecue festival, Hot Luck Fest, Wicked Kitchen’s chef Derek Sarno gets ready like any skilled pitmaster — he sharpens his knives and assembles ingredients to complement the main course.

But there is a notable difference in his featured dish.

Instead of grabbing a slab of beef, pork or chicken for his grill like most pitmasters, Sarno reaches for a mixture of top-shelf mushrooms to create his flavorful, umami-rich grilled steaks.

For the second year and counting at Hot Luck Fest in Austin, Texas, Wicked Kitchen co-founders Derek Sarno and Chad Sarno have served up lion’s mane mushroom “steak,” black pearl oyster mushroom “poke,” portabella shawarma tacos and barbecue oyster mushroom “burnt ends” to 2,500 hungry barbecue enthusiasts the last weekend in May.

Interestingly, Wicked Kitchen’s plant-based offerings held their own among meat-centric Texas barbecue masters at a festival founded in part by legend and James Beard Award-winning chef Aaron Franklin. This year Wicked Kitchen, in partnership this year with The Mushroom Council, also presented the “Shroom House” — a mushroom-themed tasting zone with the ambiance of a Texas steakhouse, offering plant-based mushroom samples.

Related news: Mushroom Council targets Texas BBQ music festival with ‘Shroom House’

Serving up savory mushroom steaks alongside meat-based classics is par for the course for Derek Sarno, who’s shared his plant-based culinary wizardry and ethos throughout his career, first at Whole Foods Market, Tesco and now Wicked Kitchen.

Based in London, Sarno met with The Packer to talk mushrooms, plant-based foods and why you shouldn’t tell hungry eaters something’s vegan — just tell them that it’s delicious.

Edited for length and clarity.

The Packer: I was so excited to see that you and your team at Wicked Kitchen brought whole mushrooms, like lion’s mane, to grill at Hot Luck Fest. What made you decide to do this?

Sarno: What I’ve noticed since even before I was at Whole Foods from 2009 — before that I lived in a monastery and have been cooking plant-based for the last 15 years — what I noticed is all these plant-based meats are all fake meats. There’s nothing wrong with them, but people keep finding excuses not to eat them and to continue eating animals.

For me personally, if I didn’t want to eat plant-based burgers or whatnot, how do we incorporate eating healthy whole foods? Mushrooms are the solution. It’s super natural to prepare because they’re super meaty.

[I went vegan seven years ago, and] mushrooms are the base for what I’ve cooked with ever since. The look, texture, taste, feel and the cooking process is great. I have continually practiced [the preparation] to the point where it’s so convincing.

I really care about cooking; I’m not just throwing something in a microwave. I want to actually cook something as a chef. Add to this, a mushroom can be grown in matter of a couple of months rather than animal production that takes several years and resources. I don’t find any downsides about mushrooms as a meat alternative.

I love that! Do you think the barbecue fans at this year’s Hot Luck Fest in Austin agreed? What was the reaction?

People loved it, and there was no word of vegan anywhere. We didn’t want to scream, “We’re the vegan guys over here!” We were just like, “This is the Shroom House. Mushrooms are on the menu.”

Everybody was just amazed, like, “Wow, I never knew you could do that with mushrooms. I never knew that,” and “If you could cook for me all the time, I’d be eating this all the time.” So that’s always good.

I feel like if you make it delicious — if it’s fresh and flavorful — it’s usually an easy sell, no matter who you’re talking to.

Yes, I want to show and share with everybody so they can try it. That’s the mission, you know?

How do you think the produce industry can encourage shoppers to toss one more veggie or some mushrooms into their cart?

What I noticed is the lack educational support. Half the people look at lion’s mane mushrooms and don’t know what they can do with it.

And it’d be awesome if we actually grew more. My whole mission is to create more supply and demand. I love that at Wicked Kitchen we partner with The Mushroom Council and support mushroom growers of all kinds, not just the big button-mushrooms, but all of them.

I would love to have more growers come to the scene, just like the craft brewery movement. When you look at Anheuser Busch and all the big beer companies, they were taken down by multitudes of small craft beers. It wasn’t just one single company; I think that’s how it’s going to have to be.

Do you see that happening now?

I’m trying to put the foundation in place. The thing about mushrooms is that they’re not seasonal. They can grow anytime, anywhere. They can grow year-round, which is fantastic.

Obviously, I want more people to eat more plant-based no matter what brand it is. Wicked Kitchen happens to be run by chefs, and I don’t know a lot of companies that have chefs behind them. Everyone’s at a board table trying to decide what’s best to do, but I kind of like the chef approach.

Absolutely. I love that the innovation you brought to Hot Luck Fest was culinary, not tech. You and your team made mushroom steaks sexy to the Texas meat crowd.

I mean, if you’re going to be a meat eater and you want to have an alternative, mushrooms are the best alternative, you know?

It’s really a mind over matter thing. If you don’t put the word vegan on your booth at Hot Luck Fest, nobody is going to avoid it. It’s just about delicious food, which is all Wicked Kitchen is about — just making delicious food. It just happens to have no animals, period.

Texas A&M AgriLife partners with Silicon Valley to tackle food security research

Tue, 11 Apr 2023 18:45:43 GMT

In recent years food security concerns have been exacerbated globally by events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts and climate change, along with regional factors like labor dynamics and severe weather that can disrupt a stable supply of nutritious food regardless of location.

Texas has had its own challenges in urban food deserts amplified by unprecedented storms in the region during the past two years. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service is looking to address concerns about food and nutrition security and prepare for future issues through a partnership with agtech investor SVG Ventures and Thrive and semiconductor chip manufacturer Intel Corp.

All three are betting on controlled environment agriculture to solve many food and nutrition security challenges.

“It has become increasingly clear that traditional agriculture will be challenged to meet the food demands of the future” John Hartnett, CEO and founder of Silicon Valley, Calif.-based SVG Ventures and Thrive, said in the release. “We are delighted to partner with Intel & Texas A&M to accelerate CEA innovations to drive improvement in food and nutrition security.”

The goal: Create a platform for advancing nutrition security in the Texas ecosystem and beyond.

Related news: Growers see traceability as essential to food safety

Advancing nutrition security through CEA

The partners plan to accelerate CEA innovations by leveraging their strengths, according to the release:

Intel will use its extensive resource base and development capabilities to support CEA technology advancement.
Texas A&M AgriLife, which comprises a college and four state agencies focused on agriculture and life sciences, is bringing its expertise and broad infrastructure to support education and research in regional economies.
SVG Ventures and Thrive offer startup, corporate partner connections along with tools and insights on scaling up.

“This collaboration in CEA represents a significant step toward AgriLife Research’s commitment to advancing and sharing knowledge that nourishes health, strengthens communities, protects natural resources and supports economies,” Texas A&M AgriLife Research Director Cliff Lamb said in the release.

Nutrition security is a core pillar of Thrive’s Global Impact Initiative — an international effort to advance a sustainable future for agri-food, according to the release. The initiative seeks to achieve this goal through convening startups, scale-ups, corporates, producers, investors and others to catalyze the innovations required to address pressing industry challenges like food security, soil health and biodiversity, greenhouse gas reduction and water management, according to the release.

“Our collaboration with Thrive is part of Intel’s Rise Technology Initiative which has created a broad, purpose driven platform for action with dedicated workstreams that support areas such as sustainability, education, healthcare, accessibility and human rights.” Rick Echevarria, Intel vice president and general manager of Intel’s RISE Technology Initiative, said in the release.

Seen and heard at Viva Fresh 2023 — Part 2

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 12:36:57 GMT

GRAPEVINE, Texas — In addition to boasting record attendance, this year’s Viva Fresh conference and trade show drew a diverse range of exhibitors to its 200 booths. From Southwest-grown winter vegetables to imported tropical fruit and logistics service providers, there was something for everyone in the fresh produce industry on the trade show floor at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Conference Center on April 1.

Related news: Record-breaking Viva Fresh touts healthy living with fresh produce

“Viva Fresh is one of our main shows,” said John Benedyk of the Tom Lange Co. “It makes sense for us to connect with regional customers to ensure the freshest product.”

With operations in all corners of Texas, the Tom Lange Co. produce team sees regional shows as a great place to learn and innovate.

“We’re building a facility nearby in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. [Viva Fresh] is a great opportunity to speak with our customers, as we’ll have a high-quality product available close to consumption, right in their backyard,” Local Bounti’s Brian Cook told The Packer.

“At the end of the day, there’s a lot of volume that’s required and we want to bring our product as close to home as possible,” Cook added.

Related news: Seen and heard at Viva Fresh

NatureSweet’s Steve Bindas said he looks forwards to regional shows like Viva Fresh.

“It’s great to be able to get together in person and not only talk about business, but talk about life as well,” Bindas told The Packer. “It’s good to catch up with people.”

Distributor Robinson Fresh was excited to showcase its local and regional growers at this year’s show.

“Eden Green from Cleburne, Texas, is a regional grower we think is cool and innovative,” said Robinson Fresh’s Molly Tabron. Grown indoors, the lettuce from Eden Greens sports lush, full heads.

The best thing about Eden Green’s lettuce is that its priced so that the average consumer can afford it, Tabron said.

Related news: Photos from Viva Fresh 2023

The Marathon Mangos booth attracted a crowd with its juicy mango margaritas, inviting attendees to start happy hour a little early.

“I’ve been going to this show since 2015,” Regan Duleba told The Packer. “I’m just excited to see everyone in person.”

Traveling from McAllen, Texas, leafy greens and winter vegetable grower Val Verde was looking for inspiration at this year’s show.

“We’re looking new ideas,” said Jeff Holton. “We just started organic celery and broccoli and are looking to increase acreage.”

The team at Johanson Transportation Service was just excited to spend time with their customers in the Lone Star State.

“It’s about building relationships. For us at JTS, that’s what matters and what we pride ourselves on,” JTS’ Alicia Bly told The Packer.