In the coming four years, Mexico plans to double its berry output, as demand from China, the world’s second largest economy rises. Mexican berry exports, which include blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries, are worth about US$1.5 billion a year, up 20 percent every year, Mario Alejandro Andrade Cárdenas, vice president of Foreign Trade of the National Agricultural Council (CNA), told EJ Insight.
“With such strong growth, which is partly contributed by China, it is likely that we will be able to double our production of berries in about four years,” Andrade said.
“We have seen strong growth of our berry exports to China after the signing of protocols for raspberry and blackberry in late 2014. We are expecting to close the protocols for strawberry and blueberry as early as possible.”
About 5,000 Mexican berry growers are based in Baja California, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato and Puebla, using 25,000 hectares of farmland and providing 120,000 permanent jobs.
About 85 percent of their produce is exported to the United States, which has almost all its imported strawberries coming from Mexico.
In November 2014, the Chinese government agreed to import raspberry and blackberry from Mexico, with the first batch of produce arriving in Shanghai in January last year.
However, competition from Chile and Peru remains a big hurdle for Mexican berry exporters.
“We are directly competing with Chile and Peru in the Chinese market. They have free trade deals with China but we don’t… we are facing a very high duty of 25 percent, which is a negative factor,” Andrade said.
He hopes the Chinese government will cancel the 25 percent tariff on Mexican berries. He said Mexican berries are more competitive than those from Chile and Peru as Mexico can offer up to nine months’ supply due to seasonal advantages.
Also, the production of blueberries in Mexico is growing 70 percent every year and will become one of the biggest categories in the country’s agricultural sector, he said.
