Mexico: Berry fields extend to six states
In addition to Michoacán, Jalisco, Baja California and Guanajuato, the main producers of berries in the country, entities such as Puebla and the State of Mexico have started to grow cranberry due to its profitability.
The industry currently has a value of 1,000 million dollars in exports and an annual growth of 20% in the last three years, according to Mario Andrade, president of the board of directors of the National Association of Exporters of Berries (Aneberries).
"We are among the five agricultural products with the highest generation of foreign exchange in the country, but the most interesting thing is not what the industry is worth, but what it can be worth (...), at least we are talking about doubling production in the next five years"He commented.
Michoacán, king of the red crown
The manager of Aneberries stressed that the main producing state is Michoacán, whose strength is the production of blackberry, with 12,500 hectares cultivated, fruit that represents 45% of the total production of berries in Mexico.
"There are very strong pushing states like Baja California with the theme of strawberries; Guanajuato with strawberries; Colima with blueberries and other crops. The diversity of states is becoming more interesting, Puebla and Estado de México are also producing cranberry".
According to the manager, the national production of berries is composed of microfunds with an average of two hectares per producer.
"It is an agglutination economy, where companies act as a catalyst for small producers and agglutinate them; then, that gives the opportunity to the small producer of one or two hectares to export directly through the companies to the final destination market".
Advantages of Jalisco
According to Aneberries, Jalisco is the national leader in raspberry and blueberry production and, due to its profitability, the reconversion of traditional crops such as corn, sorghum and sugarcane continues to increase due to the so-called strawberries.
The chairman of the board of directors of Aneberries explained that 90% of the production of red fruits is exported, mostly to the EU, which captures 80%; The remaining 20% goes to Europe, China, Russia, Japan and the Arab countries.
The Secretary of Rural Development in Jalisco, Hector Padilla, said that the recent opening of China's market for Mexican berries, with the Guadalajara airport as an exit platform, bodes well for the arrival in Russia in the short term.
In that sense, said Mario Andrade, Jalisco has a competitive advantage with direct cargo flights to those destinations.
"The connectivity that we have today from Guadalajara is enviable and the administrative and operational facilities of the city of Guadalajara are unique, no other airport has the infrastructure, not even the one in Mexico City, which is the largest".
He stressed that unlike the rest of the airports in the country, Guadalajara has a refrigerated camera on one side of the platform.
"In Mexico, products remain on the platform exposed to the weather for about three, four, five hours or even more, and here the period of exposure of the products on the platform is from 10 to 15 minutes".
Source: Eleconomista.com.mx
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