Mexico aims for sustained growth of 20% annual in berry production

18/08/2016

Last year, the Aztec country placed these products in international markets for a value of US $ 1.500 million. Currently, 28.000 has hectares dedicated to this crop.

In the 2015, Mexico exported berries for a total of US $ 1.500 million, a figure that still knows little to them. Mario Andrade, president of the National Association of Berries Exporters (Aneberries), said that he estimated that the current production level will double to the 2020 thanks to a sustained annual growth of 20%.

In fact, the spokesman stressed that this item - which includes strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries - became the third generator of agricultural currencies in his country, with which Mexico became the world's third largest exporter, only preceded by United States and Russia.

Andrade added that currently in Mexico there are 28.000 hectares dedicated to the production of berries, which meant an increase of 223.073 tons in the 2010, to 390.624 tons in the 2015.

The sowing of this fruit, he said, is especially valuable for an average of 5.000 small producers in the states of Michoacán, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Baja California and Colima.

He also specified that the 85% of exports are destined to the United States and Canada, and the rest to countries in Europe and Asia, mainly Japan. In the eagerness to reach more markets, his guild works in the development of sanitary protocols that allow him to place the product in more markets.

In fact, the Aneberries managed, in conjunction with the National Service of Health, Food Safety and Quality (Senasica), the phytosanitary protocol to export raspberry and blackberry to China, market that is also expected to enter the blueberry with the signature of a protocol.

Finally, the unionist said that the industry sees as an opportunity and not as a risk a new regulation imposed by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States, which will come into force from the 2017, which raises the levels of safety of exporters that want to enter their merchandise to that country, main destination of Mexican exports.

Source: Xinhua Agency