Guacamole has been saved from rates for now. But the sauce may not be so lucky.
While tariffs threatened in Mexican avocados have been put in pauseThe US government plans to assume a tax of almost 21% in fresh Mexican tomatoes as of July 14. A duty, like a tariff, is an import tax, and this will affect the 4 billion pounds of tomatoes that imports from the United States of Mexico every year.
The proponents say that the duty will help to rebuild the American tomato industry and ensure that the products eaten in the US are also grown there. Currently, Mexico supplies around 70% of the American tomato market, compared to 30% two decades ago, according to Florida Tomato Exchange, a commercial group.
“Unless even the field of play in terms of fair prices, it will not have a national industry for fresh tomatoes in the very close future,” said Robert Guenther, Executive Vice President of Florida Tomato Exchange. Florida and California are the main American tomato producers, but most of the California harvest becomes sauces and other products.
Oppositions say that duty will cause fresh tomatoes to be more expensive for American buyers. Naturesweet, a company based in San Antonio that cultivates tomatoes in Mexico and in the US.
“We will look for ways to adapt or rationalize our operations, but the truth is that we are always doing it, so we already manage an efficient business,” said Skip Hulett, legal director of Naturesweet. “The product is not a business of great margin. We are determining what part of the cost we could absorb, but these additional costs should certainly be transmitted to the consumer.”
Tim Richards, professor at the Morrison School of Agroniness at Arizona State University, hopes that retail prices of US tomatoes will increase by around 10.5% if the tariffs pass.
The Government of Mexico said last month that I was convinced that it could negotiate on the issue. But if the duty enters into force, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum implied that Mexico could take similar measures against chicken and pork legs from the United States
The strip and loosen on tomatoes has a long history. In 1996, shortly after the Free Trade Agreement of North America, the United States Department of Commerce investigated the accusations that Mexico was exporting tomatoes to the United States at artificially low prices, a practice known as discharge.
The United States government agreed to suspend the investigation if Mexico complied with certain rules, including the sale of its tomatoes at a minimum price. Since then, the agreement has been subject to periodic reviews, but the two parties have always reached an agreement that avoided tasks.
But last month, the Department of Commerce announced its withdrawal from the last agreement, saying that it has been “flooded with comments” of American tomato producers who want better protection of Mexican imports.
Guenther, from the Florida Tomato Stock Exchange, said that although Mexican exporters must charge a minimum price, shipments are only verified, so exporters can avoid that. But more generally, Mexico harms the American industry because it costs 40% to 50% less cultivating tomatoes there, Guenther said. The earth is cheaper, the labor is cheaper and tickets such as seeds and fertilizer cost less, he said.
Tomatoes are an intensive harvest in labor, said Guenther, and the American industry generally depends on immigrant workers through the Visa H-2a program. This program required that farmers pay workers an average of $ 16.98 per hour last year, an amount that has jumped as the labor has become more difficult to find. Richards estimates that Mexican tomato farm workers earn approximately one tenth of that rate.
Naturesweet acknowledges that it is more profitable to cultivate tomatoes in Mexico, but says that the weather is one of the main reasons. The Mexican greenhouses of the company do not need lighting, heating or cooling systems due to climatic conditions throughout the year.
“You can relocate some industries, but you can’t relocate climate agriculture,” said Hulett.
Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh de las Américas Association, which represents the importers of Mexican tomatoes, said Florida does not produce matured tomatoes with vines that US consumers favor more and more. Florida tomatoes are collected when they are green and are sent to warehouses to mature, he said.
“Florida does not cultivate the types of specialized tomatoes that have taken off, but want to obtain protection,” said Jungmeyer. “Your market share is decreasing for reasons of your own choice.”
Guenther does not agree. “If you put a Florida tomato against a Mexican tomato, I think it would work very well in the taste test,” he said.
Adrian Burciaga, co -owner of Don Artemio, an exclusive Mexican restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, would not want to change an American producer. Compares it to the good wine; If you want a good Sauvignon Cabernet, get it from Napa, California, but if you want a good tomato that reminds you of your childhood, you get it from Mexico.
“We know the flavors that will bring to the sauces and lunar. We do not want to compromise flavors,” Burciaga said.
Burciaga said its restaurant uses 300 to 400 pounds of Roman tomatoes from Mexico every week. He currently pays $ 19 for a 25 -pound tomato box. He does not enjoy paying the additional cost, but he feels that he has no choice.
Burciaga said that the duty of tomato and the threat of other tariffs against Mexico, which were implemented in February, but then stopped, are making it difficult to handle their business.
“The part of uncertainty concerns us. A small or medium budget restaurant things. We know in advance that in six months things will increase, so we can adapt,” he said. “But we don’t know these things in advance. How do you plan and how do you react?”
___
The reporter of AP Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed.
