ARIZONA & MEXICO

THE ROLE OF ARIZONA IN THE U.S.-MEXICO TRADE OF FRESH PRODUCE
By J. Rene Villalobos, Omar Ahumada and Arnold Maltz
Mexico is the main source of winter fresh produce imports to the U.S.
Traditionally, Nogales Arizona has been the main gateway for winter fresh produce from Mexico.
Fresh produce industry is changing to a more vertically integrated enterprise.
Changes in industry practices and infrastructure projects in Mexico are affecting the role of
Nogales, Arizona in the fresh produce business.
Historically Arizona has played a very important role in the trade of fresh produce between Mexico and
the United States, particularly in the flow of winter produce from Mexico. This trade goes back more than
100 years when Mexican farmers, mostly from the state of Sinaloa, looked north to export tomatoes and
other fresh produce to the thriving U.S. market. 1
While the level of fresh produce exports from Mexico to the United States had fluctuations throughout
this time, it consistently showed an increasing trend until the implementation of NAFTA when the
exports of Mexican fresh fruits and vegetables exploded and displaced some products traditionally
coming from Europe and other regions. In order to illustrate this shift we use two products: fresh
tomatoes and Cabbages/Cauliflower (HS Code 0704). Figure 1 below shows the total imports to the U.S.
of these products.
Figure 1: U.S. Imports of Two Selected Fresh Products
Fresh or Chilled Tomatoes (kgs)
HS 0704 (fresh Cabbages and similar, kgs)
Source: U.S. International Trade Commission, https://dataweb.usitc.gov
In order to realize the significance of fresh produce imports from Mexico through Nogales, the main
point of entry for fresh produce, it is important to take a look at the data of monthly commercial border
crossings at Nogales. Figure 2 shows the monthly truck crossings at Nogales. This graph clearly shows the
high level of seasonality in the data caused by the crossing of winter season fresh produce coming from
Mexico.
One of the deterrents of fresh produce exports from Mexico to the United States has been the
underlying logistics and transportation capacity. Originally, given the poor land transportation links
between the producing regions in Mexico and the United States, sea transportation was explored as
the main means of export. However, this initial experiment failed because the sea shipping industry
1
Frías Sarmiento, Eduardo, “El tomate mexicano y el mercado de Estados Unidos, 1920-1956”, Historia Agraria, 46, December
2008, pp. 65-90
APRIL 2016 • ARIZONA TOWN HALL • ARIZONA & MEXICO • 48