Forecasts show that tomato production in Mexico will increase to 3.3 million tonnes in 2024. This at a time when the U.S. market wants to check cross-border “price dumping” of Mexico’s tomatoes through tariffs.
USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) reported on June 4, 2024 that it expects Mexico’s production to increase by 2% over 2023’s 3.22 million tonnes.
FAS cited climate change as a key challenge to tomato yields but countered that greenhouse cultivation is a mitigating factor.
The leader in tomato production in Mexico still remains Sinaloa on the Pacific coast, whose 2023 national production share was 22%.
Other leading production areas are the central region’s San Luis Potosi, avocado-rich Michoacán and Zacatecas in north-central Mexico.
Dumping Across the Border
At the same time when tomato production in Mexico is improving, the United States’ Congress is contemplating import tariff increment to reduce “dumping.”
According to studies, Mexico’s tomatoes compete unfairly with their American counterparts in the U.S. market. 2024 estimates show that their prices are 20.91% below the American average.
This estimate is way lower than that of a 1996 review that revealed cross-border prices as 188% less than those in the U.S.
Hence, Congress could bring in tariffs to insure price parity and this would mean a 21% tomato price raise in the U.S..
As tomatoes in the U.S., already average $2 a pound, customers could pay $2.24 a pound upon the tariff.
Mexico remains the number 1 exporter of tomatoes into the U.S. market and in 2022 alone, it supplied 1.81 million tonnes, equal to 90% of all U.S.’ tomato imports. This is despite the fact that annual tomato production in Mexico is lower than that of the United States.
In short, improving tomato production in Mexico may encounter export tariff increment plans by the U.S. congress. For that matter, below are production, export and consumption statistics that drive Mexico’s tomato industry.
Mexico Tomato Statistics
Mexico is a net producer and exporter of tomatoes. The country produced 4.149 million tonnes of tomatoes in 2021. This output earned Mexico the 8th rank worldwide after Spain, Egypt, Italy, the U.S., Turkey, India and production leader China.
Which is the world’s top tomato–exporting nation?
Mexico ranked the world’s biggest exporter of raw tomatoes in 2021 worth $2.7 billion or 25.7% of the global exports.
What portion of Mexico’s tomatoes is processed?
While only a small portion of the country’s tomato value chain, processed tomatoes in Mexico reached 40,000 tonnes in 2021.
What’s the consumption rate of tomatoes in Mexico?
Mexico had a yearly per capita consumption of tomatoes of 13.4 kg per person in 2022. The country consumed 1.8 million tonnes of tomatoes in 2022.