Sep 2, 2011

Mexico opens markets to southern U.S. peaches

The U.S. and Mexican governments have signed an agreement allowing Southern U.S. peaches to be sold in Mexico for the first time in close to two decades. This move opens a potentially huge market for Southern peaches, said Desmond Layne, a horticulturist from Clemson University.

“Mexico has a very large population, and the Mexicans like U.S. peaches,” he said. “The larger cities closest to the border will be the first target markets for Southern U.S. growers. We haven’t had access to this market in 17 years.”

The cause for the closure of this market to Southern growers had to do with pest concerns. One of the keys to making this market a successful place for Southern peaches again is getting Southern growers’ IPM practices to meet the stringent requirements of the Mexican government, Layne said.

“There is a tremendous market there, but Mexico is greatly concerned about invasive insects,” he said. “One of the major pests they were concerned about with Southern produce is plum curculio. There is very strict testing and a set of rules growers must follow to sell peaches in Mexico.”

Could the reopening of this market cause a boost in peach production in the South? If there is a significant amount of demand from the Mexican market and the demand from the East Coast of the United States doesn’t wane, the opening of the Mexican market to Southern growers could spur an increase in production acreage, Layne said. South Carolina was steadily increasing production even before this market opened up.

One thing in favor of growers looking at this emerging market is the type of fruit the consumer wants. Mexican consumers favor a smaller peach than U.S. consumers, Layne said.

“They prefer a smaller fruit, like a 2-3/4-inch peach,” he said. “This can possibly provide Southern growers with a profitable new avenue to sell peaches that didn’t reach the larger size grade the U.S. fresh market wants. It gives an avenue for fresh sales of those smaller peaches that have all the flavor and other characteristics that Southern peaches are known for, but for whatever reason the size just wasn’t there.”

Currently, only one grower has had the capacity to engage in this new market: Titan Farms of Ridge Springs, S.C. Chalmers Carr, the owner of Titan Farms, was instrumental in getting the Mexican market reopened by helping facilitate the deal, Layne said. At 4,900 acres, Titan Farms is the largest peach farm in South Carolina and Georgia.

As more growers take the steps to meet the demands the Mexican government has put on imported peaches, Layne expects the number of growers selling peaches in Mexico to grow. At a recent peach growers’ meeting, one of the larger growers in Georgia indicated to Layne that he is going to make a play for the new market in 2012, as did two smaller growers.

“As long as they can meet Mexico’s pest monitoring program requirements, I can see more and more growers looking to the Mexican market in 2012,” Layne said.

Layne pointed out another fact: 98 percent of the farm labor in South Carolina and Georgia is Hispanic.

“There is an element of pride with the farm workers,” he said. “They feel they are shipping food back home.”

By Derrek Sigler, assistant editor