Strawberry producers aren't worried about Donald Trump's trade policies: year after year the US demand for strawberries has increased and 2017 won't be an exception. Producers expect to increase exports by 20%, for a total of one million boxes of strawberries, in the next season, which runs from October to February.
The President of the Union of Fruit and Vegetable Producers in the state, Jose Javier Aguirre Gallardo, said the United States hadn't returned merchandise to Mexico. What happened, he said, was that a shipment from Salamanca didn't meet the FDA requirements to enter US territory.
He insisted that there wouldn't be a decrease in exports because the American consumers demanded the product, not politics. In addition, he said, the American consumer was very demanding and demanded fresh, Mexican, high quality strawberries, and Guanajuato has excelled in this area.
The exportable product for the United States and Canada must meet certain requirements, such as a certain degree of maturity and size, an absence of green tips, and workers, who must use masks at all times, can't use cellphones during packaging or have painted nails, among other measures.
He also said that the peak export period took place from October to February, but that they also exported frozen strawberries throughout the rest of the year to the United States, Canada, Japan, and Finland.
"Irapuato's fresh strawberry exports have increased year after year. This year we will likely export more than one million 200 thousand boxes to the US and Canada, something truly historic that has never been achieved. The sector's growth has been orderly and gradual," said Aguirre Gallardo.
Source: elfinanciero.com.mx