Mexicans only eat 235 grams per capita of fruit and vegetables per day, on average, i.e. 58.75 percent of the 400 grams recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), excluding potatoes and other tubers.
It is a limited consumption considering that Mexico is self-sufficient in the production of both types of food, said Alfredo Neme Martinez, president of the Mexican Association for Fair Trade (AMCJ).
He also stated that the prices of some basic food products, such as avocado, onion, sugar and lime, had increased last week, while tomato prices had decreased.
Neme Martinez attributed the low consumption of vegetables and fruit in the country to the loss of purchasing power, which, he said, had fallen by 6.6 percent in the first two years of the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto. He also said there wasn’t a culture of eating fruit and vegetables, people prefer junk and fast food and that only increases the country’s alarming rate of obesity and diabetes.
Shops, both in the rural and urban areas, have a bigger supply of junk food than of fruit and vegetables, which should be as easy to find as sodas and fries.
He estimated that consumption of fruit and vegetables in Mexico could increase by 30 percent if the supply centres and the federal government worked together to reinforce the traditional food distribution chain and make it more accessible to the population.
Moreover, fruits and vegetables are cheaper than processed foods, especially when they are in season and because they aren’t taxed with the special tax on production and services (IEPS) that began being applied on soft drinks and products with high caloric content.
The World Health Organization estimates that every person should consume 88 kilos of vegetables and 59 kilos of fruit each year, i.e 400 grams of both products on a daily average. In the case of Mexico, the intake of these foods is 41.25 percent below the WHO recommendation.
The leader of the AMCJ proposed that the Ministries of Health, Education, Agriculture and Economy, worked together with the supply centres to carry out a campaign in the markets and grocery stores to promote the consumption of fruit and vegetables and the benefits of consuming these foods.
Neme Martinez said that the prices of fruits and vegetables were cheaper when they were in season, as was currently the case for pineapples, bananas, guavas, grapefruit, strawberries, watermelons, pears, peaches, grapes, papayas, mangoes, oranges, chayotes, cabbages, pears, carrots, celery, broccoli, green beans, green peppers, lettuce, cauliflower, zucchini, and tomatoes, which are all part of the basic food basket in Mexico.
Source: jornada.unam.mx