AMSTERDAM: Mexico’s tomato exports are only US $60 million away from becoming the country’s main food product export. Last year, Mexico was the world’ biggest tomato exporter in volume, shipping 1.56 million tonnes, beating second-place Netherlands, which shipped 1.121 million.
The two countries are tied at $1.818 billion in terms of the dollar value of their tomato exports. Although Mexico was slow to adopt protected agriculture systems, it now has more greenhouses than either the United States or Canada.
According to the Agriculture Secretariat (Sagarpa), exports of fresh or refrigerated tomatoes shot up 22.7% in the first five months of this year, putting the product second only to beer for food product exports.
Mexico is estimated to have captured 21% of the international tomato market. Sagarpa’s information agency, SIAP, said 2.8 million tonnes of tomatoes are grown annually on 51,000 hectares.
