Producing Produce

Your local grocery store is becoming a regular United Nations of fruits and vegetables. That’s especially true at this time of year, when even the climactically favored fields of California aren’t producing at full bore.

In the produce section you’ll find apricots from New Zealand; blueberries, grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears and plums from Chile; bananas and melons from Costa Rica, and melons from El Salvador.

By far the dominant country in this polyglot harvest, though, is Mexico. Last week, Mexico shipped to Southern California markets beans, melons, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, limes, onions (dried and green), oranges, peas, peppers, radishes, squash, strawberries, tomatoes and watermelons.

There has always been a healthy trade in fruits and vegetables with Mexico, but recently it has expanded greatly.

Consider that from 1990 to 1995 (the last year for which full statistics are available), the amounts of tomatoes and bell peppers--just to take two examples--that Mexico had shipped into this country more than doubled.

In fact, a new study from the Universidad de Chapingo, a Mexican agricultural college, shows that Mexico supplied 60% of the United States’ vegetable market in the winter of 1995-96, including supplying 68% of the winter tomatoes, 68% of the bell peppers and 84% of the cucumbers and zucchini.

This year is sure to be much higher. In fact, even before the as-yet-untotaled month of December is figured in, tomato imports for 1996 were already up 2% over 1995. And December is the beginning of Mexico’s peak tomato harvest.

There are many factors that go into such a massive shift, says Gary Lucier, an agricultural economist for the Department of Agriculture’s economic research service.

“The biggest reason is obviously the peso devaluation, but even if that hadn’t hit, this would probably have happened,” Lucier says. “Just from the variety point of view, Mexico is growing extended-shelf-life tomatoes, vine-ripes, that taste better than the mature greens you get out of Florida. Those particular tomatoes have found some following among consumers.

“The weather in Florida the last couple of years hasn’t helped matters. A lot of their produce is not available to any great extent because of freezes or hurricanes or whatever calamity might befall them in any given year.”

The North American Free Trade Assn., which reduced tariffs on trade between Mexico and the United States, probably hasn’t had much effect, Lucier says. “Even before NAFTA, the tariffs on produce were very low. Most of the analytical models we’ve run have shown only a very minor impact from tariff reduction.”

And if it weren’t for the Mexican produce, the shelves in most grocery stores would be pretty bare right now, given the devastating freeze last month in Florida.

“Consumers undoubtedly would be paying much higher prices than they are now,” Lucier says. “Mexico evens out those spikes in Florida.”