According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, in 2012 Mexico was the largest exporter of avocados worldwide, with about 52.8 percent of the global total, and also accounted for 23.6 percent of global sales of tomatoes.
Mexico leads in global onion exports with 14.7 percent of the global market, while its papayas accounted for 31.8 percent of said market.
Mango and guavas each have about 20 percent of the global market share and Brussels sprouts, 26.6 percent of the total.
Mexico is also successful in the citrus category as the country is the fourth largest exporter, especially of limes, although they also exported oranges and grapefruit, totalling 470,000 tons this year, according to the FAO.
The sale of fruit and vegetables between January and August 2014 amounted to 6.654 million US dollars, i.e. 2.6 percent of all Mexican exports, which is not a small amount considering that the country is also a great seller of oil and manufacturing products, according to the Bank of Mexico.
“The Mexican tomato is globally known because of its quality, high nutrient content, and because of the volume being shipped. Due to this, we have been able to enter the US, Canadian and European markets, “said Manuel Cazares Castro, president of the Red Tomato National Council System.
Mexican tomato growers have had to improve several processes, from understanding what products are in demand internationally and planning crops to the logistics of shipping, handling of the product and its packaging, which must be done carefully and must always follow rules and be certified.
“When there is a lot of supply, markets contract, but we can’t sell below a price, because of our production costs. Sometimes we compete with other products from other countries, but it is difficult for them to have our quality level,” said the producer.
However, Mexico doesn’t have the commercial support of the foreign trade policy by sectors, as other countries do, to help the producers of these crops.
“Mexico believes in a non-strategic trade liberalization in which the market will regulate the flow of products and growth, so we’ll be able to compete where we’re efficient and it will be cheaper and more profitable for the consumer to import the products in which we aren’t efficient,” said Manuel Diaz, director of the Mexican Institute of Foreign Trade Executives (IMECE).
