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Mexico flooded with excess produce
Mexico
Friday 13 June 2008
Export-quality tomatoes labeled "Ready to Eat" in English flooded Mexico City markets on Thursday after a salmonella scare in the U.S. stopped them from crossing the border.
There is no proof that Mexico provided the contaminated tomatoes that caused the alarm. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still hunting for the source of the outbreak that has sickened at least 167 people in 17 U.S. states since mid-April.
The FDA has cleared imports from at least six countries — but not Mexico, which sends 80% of its tomato exports to the United States. Florida tomatoes are also under suspicion.
But some U.S. consumers already associate the outbreak with Mexican produce, and exports from Baja California came to a halt this week.
Jesus Macias, the sales manager at the Productora Agricola Industrial del Noreste, normally ships 50,000 boxes a day to an importer in Chula Vista, California. Since the scare, "we can't sell a single box of tomatoes," he said. Instead, he is shipping his top quality tomatoes to Mexican markets, and letting rot the lesser-quality produce normally sold to Mexicans.
At Mexico City's bustling central supply market, where food arrives from across Mexico to supply 20 million people who live in and around the capital, truckloads of tomatoes are arriving in boxes originally meant for the U.S.
"Sweet treat. Premium quality," says lettering in English, advertising lost on Mexico's Spanish speakers.
Most consumers do not even know about the U.S. salmonella scare. And those who do, rarely care. Mexicans are accustomed to washing all produce because the vegetables sold on the national market are not held to the same standards as those certified for export.
There is no proof that Mexico provided the contaminated tomatoes that caused the alarm. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still hunting for the source of the outbreak that has sickened at least 167 people in 17 U.S. states since mid-April.
The FDA has cleared imports from at least six countries — but not Mexico, which sends 80% of its tomato exports to the United States. Florida tomatoes are also under suspicion.
But some U.S. consumers already associate the outbreak with Mexican produce, and exports from Baja California came to a halt this week.
Jesus Macias, the sales manager at the Productora Agricola Industrial del Noreste, normally ships 50,000 boxes a day to an importer in Chula Vista, California. Since the scare, "we can't sell a single box of tomatoes," he said. Instead, he is shipping his top quality tomatoes to Mexican markets, and letting rot the lesser-quality produce normally sold to Mexicans.
At Mexico City's bustling central supply market, where food arrives from across Mexico to supply 20 million people who live in and around the capital, truckloads of tomatoes are arriving in boxes originally meant for the U.S.
"Sweet treat. Premium quality," says lettering in English, advertising lost on Mexico's Spanish speakers.
Most consumers do not even know about the U.S. salmonella scare. And those who do, rarely care. Mexicans are accustomed to washing all produce because the vegetables sold on the national market are not held to the same standards as those certified for export.
