USA Hispanic Farmers Aim to Boost Trade with Mexico

YAKIMA, Washington (By Shannon Dininny, AP) February 28, 2004 - About three dozen Hispanic farmers met Monday to explore ways to increase direct trade between central Washington's Yakima Valley and Mexico, aiming to capitalize on the ties Mexican immigrants have with their native country.

The seminar took place as growers of the state's most valuable agricultural product - apples - bemoaned a Mexican court ruling last week. The court temporarily blocked a deal that would have ended a 47 percent tariff on U.S. apples, dashing the industry's hopes of boosting sales south of the border.

Mexico is among the top five markets for many of the state's agricultural commodities and had been the state's largest foreign export market for apples until the tariff was enacted in 2002.

"Mexican producers have been growing and growing in the state of Washington. They need information in order to support their efforts to export their products," said Jorge Madrazo, consul general of Mexico in Seattle.

"This is a two-way street seminar, because we are passing the message about how they get their products into Mexico and get Mexican products into their communities," Madrazo said.

The seminar discussed competition from Mexico's agricultural community, trade regulations by both governments and opportunities for Washington products in Mexican markets.

Nearly all of the growers who attended said they harvest apples.

Late last year, Taiwan imposed a ban on U.S. apples after finding a codling moth larva in a shipment, effectively closing the third-largest export market for U.S. growers.

And the United States has been fighting the Mexican tariff, enacted because growers there had accused U.S. producers of dumping, or unfairly selling apples there at levels below the sales prices for apples in the U.S. market.

The tariff was to have been lifted Feb. 28 as part of an agreement between the Mexican Ministry of Economy and the Yakima-based Northwest Fruit Exporters, a nonprofit that manages apple and cherry export programs for about 85 packers and shippers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

But last week, a judge blocked the agreement with an injunction. The blow comes at a time when Washington growers have a bumper crop to sell. They harvested a record 101 million boxes last season.

Washington state produces about half of all U.S. apples. Apples are the state's most valuable agricultural commodity, worth about $1.15 billion a year.

"It goes beyond a level of disappointment. The frustration levels are just very high over this," said Jim Archer, executive director of Northwest Fruit Exporters. "It's completely disruptive to trade."

In addition to the tariff, Mexico also imposes strict cold storage and packing requirements for pest control, Archer said.

Those requirements often leave small growers at the mercy of warehouses that can set their own price, said Luz Bazan Gutierrez, president of Rural Community Development Resources, a group that aims to assist minorities in farming and business across central Washington. The group helped sponsor the seminar.

For that reason, talk also centered on reinvigorating a cooperative of Latino farmers that could garner federal funding and build and operate storage and packing facilities.

Simon Aguilar, 65, a one-time apple grower who now harvests eight acres of cherries, appreciated the idea.

"One person can never make one warehouse, but if we make it a union, 30 or 40 farmers or 50, we can get a loan," Aguilar said.