Florida's tomato and strawberry growers say they're fighting to keep up with a rising tide of cheaper produce imports from Mexico.
Mexican strawberry imports jumped 142 percent from 2008 to 2011, according to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In the first three quarters of this year, they soared 50 percent compared to the same period in 2011.
Mexican imports will likely rise less steeply in the fourth quarter because farmers in both countries faced many of the same unfavorable growing conditions, said Ted Campbell, executive director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association in Dover, the industry's trade group.
But that doesn't mean the Mexican market threat has subsided, Campbell said.
"They're not going away. They're going to continue to grow," Campbell said. "You can't ignore what's going on."
Mexican tomato imports also have risen significantly, up 43.7 percent from 2008 through 2011 and another 5.6 percent in the first three quarters of 2012 compared with 2011, USDA figures show.
Those numbers reflect Mexican imports of round tomatoes grown in open fields and in "hothouses," or covered areas such as a greenhouse. Those varieties most directly compete with Florida round tomatoes, the dominant variety grown here.
Mexican hothouse tomatoes, which account for about 75 percent of total imports, pose the bigger threat, federal data shows. They've risen 74 percent from 2008 through 2011.
"In the last five to six years, Mexico has converted from a field culture to a hothouse culture," said John VanSickle, an agricultural economist at the University of Florida in Gainesville who specializes in international trade issues, including tomatoes and strawberries.
That trend will continue, he said. Among the factors fueling the transition are better prices and lower production costs, including pesticides, which appeals to U.S. consumers concerned about chemical residues on produce.
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