With an increase in the volume of exports of 15 percent in 2016, compared to 2015, the tomato has positioned itself as the second national product, with greater participation of the foreign market, according to figures from the Country Agri-Food Information System (SIAP). Only beer is above this vegetable in positioning in the export niches.
The SIAP specified that from January to October 2016 the value of Mexican tomato exports reached US $ 1.742 billion, up 15 percent from the same period of 2015 or 200 million dollars.
A little less than 99 percent of the tomatoes offered in the international market went to the United States; the other vegetable-buying countries were Canada and Japan.
In accordance with the national trend, the first destination of the tomato obtained in Michoacán was the United States, said the state's head of the Sistema Producto Jitomate, Alfredo Esquivel Ramírez.
Because of this demand, the use of greenhouses has become necessary in order to guarantee the production of the vegetables, explained Alfredo Esquivel, even though only 20 percent of the production is done through this process, while the remaining 80 percent is outdoors.
The Bajio region recorded greenhouses in the municipalities of La Piedad, Copandaro and Huandacareo, as well as the Oriente and Morelia Queréndaro Valleys, with an average annual harvest of 30 thousand tons to 40 thousand tons, while in Tuzantla it was 10 thousand tons.
In total, in 2016, the company produced 223 thousand tons of tomato, in 6 thousand 946 hectares of cultivation distributed in 53 municipalities.
The main tomato producing municipalities were Tanhuato, with a planted area of 484 hectares and a production of 33,386 tons; Yurécuaro, with 532 hectares planted and a production of 24,546 tons; Tacámbaro, with an area of 592 hectares and a production of 14,385 tons; Aguililla, with 689 hectares and a production of 14,919 tons, and Villamar, with 200 hectares planted and a production of 14,601 tons.
Source: quadratin.com.mx