The pandemic proved challenging to all in various ways, and farmworkers had unique needs that had to be met in order to keep agriculture going and food from California on dinner tables all over the world. The California Farmworker Foundation was among the great organizations that rose to the occasion to meet their needs. Pandemic aside, farmworkers are essential, they have families and needs, they have a voice, and the California Farmworker Foundation has been established and continues to grow for these reasons. Watch this brief interview to learn more.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
Pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo) are a common vegetable crop sold at local pumpkin patches and farmers markets, in addition to commercial production. In 2019, the value of harvested pumpkin was worth $180 million.
In addition to the value of harvested pumpkins for commercial use (canned pumpkin, produce departments, etc.) pumpkins are also a staple crop in agritourism operations. In Kansas alone, there were 409 farms registered in the state in 2020. Agritourism enterprises have shown to benefit communities by connecting consumers with agriculture and help preserve farmland in rural and peri-urban areas.
Vegetable crop production typically involves smaller acreages than agronomic production. However, farmers often rely on intensive cultivation of soil to prepare the seedbed for planting. Tilling also helps manage weeds.
Agritourism enterprises have shown to benefit communities by connecting consumers with agriculture and help preserve farmland in rural and peri-urban communities. Shown here, a pumpkin patch where people can pick their own pumpkin as part of fall activities. Credit: Canva Pro
Over time, extensive tillage can have negative effects on soil structure and microbial properties. Researchers in Kansas recently published a paper studying conservation practices for pumpkin production. The research was published in Soil Science Society of America Journal, a publication of the Soil Science Society of America.
According to researcher Peter Tomlinson, “no-till production methods have been widely adopted by agronomic (field corn, soybean, wheat, etc.) growers throughout the United States. However, no-till practices for vegetable production in the Central United States are relatively rare. Mid-Atlantic States such as Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland have adopted no-till practices for pumpkin and other large-seeded vegetable crops.”
The study compared growing pumpkins in a biannual tilled control system with annual tilled systems that used cover crops. “This project is designed to compare systems, rather than individual effects of cover crops or tillage,” says Tomlinson. The authors reported the effects of a three-year project on dynamic soil properties.
The annual systems used cover crops planted into the soil. They were terminated before planting the pumpkins. The team researched cereal rye and oat alone, as well as cereal rye with other cover crops mixed in. They performed the study over three growing seasons at two sites – Eastern and South-Central Kansas. Both sites have humid climates with warm summers, and loam-type soils.
A field planted with pumpkins grown in a cover crop system with cereal rye. Cover crops have proven environmental benefits, though many vegetable growers in the Midwest have been slower to adopt this conservation practice. A recent study showed soil health benefits with no reduction in yield. Credit: DeAnn R. Presley
At each of the study sites, soil health was assessed at two key times; plots were sampled 2-3 weeks after pumpkin planting, and immediately after pumpkin harvest.
The main soil physical property that was affected by management systems used in this study was an improvement with the use of conservation systems in total soil aggregation and the presence of very large aggregates. Soil aggregates are small particles of soil held together with a glue-like substance. This is usually due to microbial activity. Soil aggregates help in the stability of the soil making it less prone to wind and water erosion.
“Adding cover crops and reducing tillage in a pumpkin production system can cause a measurable change in soil aggregation in a short period of time, two years in this study,” says Tomlinson.
“There were few instances where the species or mixture of species influenced the results,” he continues. “Rather, the presence of cover crops in the conservation systems appears to have a more dominant role. The significance of this work is that it demonstrated there can be measurable changes in some dynamic soil properties in the short term (two years). This is within a system that involves a reduction in tillage operations and the addition of cover crops.”
“We conclude that the use of less tillage and a cover crop in a conservation system is generally beneficial as compared to a conventional system. This study illustrates the potential for improving some soil health parameters in as little as two years,” says Tomlinson. Future research will focus on how the implementation of conservation system across a range of agricultural systems and time scales effect dynamic soil properties.”
Funding for this research was provided by NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant.
Cathryn Davis measuring infiltration rates in an oat cover crop during her MS research published in this paper (photo by DeAnn R. Presley)
Dara joins NWREC from the University of California Cooperative Extension in San Louis Obispo. With more than 25 years of experience in research and extension, he brings expertise in IPM, microbial control, biostimulants, and biological soil amendments. Recognized for his development of innovative solutions in sustainable crop production and protection, he is passionate about connecting with both the agricultural community and the general public in raising awareness about food production and promoting equitable food access.
“We are excited to have Surendra join the team and take on the leadership role at one of the most agriculturally diverse experiment stations in the state,” said Alan Sams, Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences and Director of the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station. “His expertise in innovative agricultural production and his passion for connecting with people from all backgrounds is critical to a region that relies on agricultural production for its economic and social vitality.”
Nearly 40% of the $5.7 billion farmgate value of Oregon agriculture is produced within a 50-mile radius of NWREC. The researchers and extension faculty at the station focus their work and programming on some of Oregon’s most important local agricultural crops, including: greenhouses and nurseries, hazelnuts, berries, vegetables and specialty seed production, Christmas trees, orchard crops, and field and grass crops. In addition, four other programs cut across these crop systems—small farms production, organic production, pesticide research, and agrivoltaics.
“Research stations play a critical role in the local economy and how we contribute to the success of sustainable agriculture,” Dara explained. “The densely diverse agricultural production and proximity to an urban center make this station such a unique place to contribute to science and community. So much about this position, the station, and the College align with my values and goals. I am eager to get started and take this opportunity to make a meaningful difference.”
Dara is filling the position left open by Mike Bondi, who recently retired after a distinguished career serving Oregon State University since 1978, including the past 10 years as the director of NWREC.
In addition to his scientific and community contributions, Dara is also a talented poet, writer, lyricists in his native language Telugu and stand-up comedian. He founded Laugh To Live in 2008 and gives talks about finding happiness.
Dara began his new role as director of NWREC on January 18, 2022.
Pre-Season ground prep work was completed in late-2021, first-turn plantings have been well under way since November, and harvesting of early Cole crops have begun in earnest.
For Tri-County vegetable growers their cycle of implementing their standard cultural practices for the 2022 growing season has been under way since late-2021. The standard fundamentals of “blocking and tackling” to successful growing will evolve seasonally, ranging from pest management practices and field labor time management to updated food safety requirements, to highlight a few.
For the upcoming 2022 growing season, however, costing standards will be taking a dramatic upturn. Unlike prior pre-pandemic seasons, the 2022 season backdrop is a continued convergence of worsening supply chain hurdles and inflationary input cost increases.
Unlike this time last season, the uncertainty of whether the cost increases would be transitory or persist and continue to increase is now self-evident. As reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, the benchmark for measuring national cost increases, the CPI-U, has increased to 7.9 percent over the prior 12 months.
The current events unfolding in Ukraine only exacerbate the already-challenging supply-chain situation. For growers, predicting what some of their direct input growing costs, such as seasonal fertilizer requirements or any petroleum-based by-products, is proving to be “best-guess work,” even for as short a period as three to four months in advance.
The old local adage of “What’s good for the shipper is good for the grower” is generally still true. Because the grower-shipper interests are intertwined, namely partnering to supplying the highest quality, healthiest and safest vegetables at a competitive value proposition.
Many of the aforementioned grower-shipper relationships are deep-rooted and have covered the course of generations in some instances. The foundations of these relationships have been based on trust, mutual respect, and business execution in good years, in which both realize profitability in order sustain their respective operations. To this end, with the intent to ensure growers’ direct inflationary growing costs as well as packing and manufacturing shipper and processing costs are “passed through” to the buying community via finished fair price increases.
The growing community applauds the unusual yet vital measure the shipper and processing community has taken with this action. The grower community could no longer absorb the steep inflationary cost increases on top of the annual margin compression driven by input costs outpacing general contract price increases of the past decade. These actions will make the old adage shift to “What’s good for the grower is good for the shipper AND processor.”
Tomatoes are big business in the United States, but an insect no bigger than a grain of rice threatens growers’ fields each season.
Kaolin and limonene applied to a seedling tomato (photo by Xavier Martini, UF/IFAS).
The whitefly prefers the underside of leaves, enjoying a variety of plants and spreading a few diseases, including Tomato yellow leaf curl virus. The pests are also persistent, said Xavier Martini, an entomologist at the University of Florida Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) North Florida Research and Education Center (NFREC) in Quincy. Most commonly, growers apply insecticides weekly to the plants, which may not prevent the disease from reaching and spreading throughout a field, he said.
“I was contacted by a local tomato producer, who has now had two recent seasons with his fields overtaken by this virus, despite weekly spraying,” Martini said. “The whitefly is able to use other plants as hosts, including surrounding row crops and weeds, which helps it to remain near crop fields even where insecticides are being used.”
The farmer’s plight inspired Martini and Nicholas Johnston, a Ph.D. student in his lab, to look into another remedy. They assembled a team of NFREC researchers: Mathews Paret, associate professor of plant pathology; Josh Freeman, associate professor of horticultural science; and Thomson Paris, postdoctoral researcher in entomology.
Previous studies helped narrow their testing focus to a white clay called kaolin and an essential oil called limonene, each of which is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency for agricultural use. Although previous publications have not documented use of the two in combination, kaolin’s absorbency of essential oils is well-noted.
“These products are easily found and relatively inexpensive, and they can be applied using a tractor that is standard spray equipment on most farms,” Martini said. “They also happen to meet the requirements for organic production, so although that was not a specific goal for this study, it is a bonus.”
The study, published in the journal Crop Protection, details applications in both closed-cage plants and open-field test plots, with some plants receiving a single type of treatment and others a combination of the two. While the single treatments resulted in fewer nymphs and adults than non-treated control plants, the combination resulted in the smallest whitefly counts.
The next iteration of the study is testing the same combination on squash (Photo by Tyler Jones, UF/IFAS).
“It’s not clear why the whitefly doesn’t like the leaves applied with the clay,” Martini said. “We know whiteflies are attracted to the color yellow, so we initially thought it was a visual repellent. We found that it was more likely the texture of the coating. But when combined with another type of repellent in limonene, we saw the whiteflies were even less drawn to the plant.”
The trials required weekly applications due to plant growth and rainfall, although Martini noted the clay’s water solubility can also be viewed as a positive for producers. Any spray that may remain on harvested produce can be easily rinsed off during processing.
UF/IFAS research on kaolin-limonene treatments is continuing, Martini said, and will next focus on squash and other cucurbits. These plants are also susceptible to whiteflies and contract diseases like cucurbit leaf crumple virus.
The publication, “Repelling whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) using limonene-scented kaolin: A novel pest management strategy,” can be accessed at doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2022.105905. Research was funded through a USDA grant administered by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. — By Kirsten Romaguera, University of Florida Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences
The word ‘honeydew’ sounds benign, but the sugary waste product of aphids can promote growth of bacteria that are highly virulent to the pests, according to a new study.
The research takes a step towards understanding how some strains of the bacteria Pseudomonas syringae that live on leaves and are pathogenic to aphids might one day be used to control the pests. Aphids transmit plant viruses when they feed on sap, costing billions of dollars in annual crop damage around the world.
The paper, “Context Dependent Benefits of Aphids for Bacteria in the Phyllosphere,” published Jan. 12 in The American Naturalist, assessed the virulence of different strains of P. syringae to aphids. The researchers also investigated how well the bacteria survive on leaf surfaces without aphids, and whether bacteria benefited from the presence of aphids.
“For one of the experiments, we actually took the aphids out of the picture entirely,” said Melanie Smee, the paper’s first author and a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of co-author Tory Hendry, assistant professor of microbiology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
“We literally just sprayed fake honeydew on to leaves, and we still saw the same increase for the bacteria [as when aphids were present], so it’s really just the honeydew that’s helping the bacteria,” Smee said.
In the study, Smee and Hendry identified 21 strains of varying virulence to aphids. They then chose eight of those strains. For each strain, they sprayed bacteria onto plants with aphids and other plants without aphids, to see if the bacteria benefited from the aphids presence. They measured bacterial growth on leaves and found that half of the strains benefited significantly.
The next step was to try to understand the source of that benefit. They knew the bacteria are consumed and then grow within aphids and then are excreted out, so they wanted to see if passage through the aphids helped bacterial populations thrive. They set up a new experiment, with the aphids suspended above leaves that had been sprayed with bacteria. They fed one set of aphids an artificial diet with bacteria, and another set without bacteria, and the aphids then excreted honeydew onto the leaves below.
They found it didn’t matter whether aphids were fed bacteria; all the bacteria on the leaves did better in the presence of aphids. It turned out that the honeydew was the only factor that boosted bacterial populations.
They also found that benefits from honeydew to bacteria were not correlated to strain traits, but they were affected by the initial population densities, such that smaller populations increased more with honeydew, compared with large populations, which increased less.
More work is needed to determine which P. syringae strains are pathogenic to plants, an important consideration if bacteria are used for pest control. The researchers are also interested in investigating the role of the interaction of bacterial communities.
The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and by Cornell. — By Krishna Ramanujan,Cornell College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
While not exactly the stuff of sci-fi movies, scientists have developed a “ray gun” that emits a light hazardous to a pestilence that devastates many types of crops. Fumiomi Takeda, a research horticulturalist, and Wojciech Janisiewicz, retired research plant pathologist, from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection unit in Kearneysville, WV, led a team that used shortwave ultraviolent light (UV-C) to kill powdery mildew fungus.
UV-C is a very specific part of the ultraviolet light spectrum. UV-C is produced by the sun but does not reach Earth’s surface because it is absorbed by the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. That’s a good thing, because UV-C is harmful to humans and plants when exposed to excessive amounts or for a long time.
“We conducted research to administer UV-C on powdery mildew-infected strawberry plants without causing harmful effects on the plant, such as leaf burn, fruit softening, or color darkening to determine whether it would be a good alternative to controlling powdery mildew with pesticides,” Takeda said.
On strawberry plants, powdery mildew appears as white powdery spots or fuzzy growth on both sides of leaves and on stems. Moderate to severe infection reduces the ability of leaves to employ photosynthesis – the process that plants use to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water. Powdery mildew can kill flowers, harden immature fruit, and reduce fruit quality and marketable yields.
If not controlled, the disease can cause a significant economic loss, especially to plants grown in greenhouses or high tunnels. In Japan and western Europe, where over 90% of strawberry production is in the greenhouse and under high tunnels, powdery mildew is the primary cause of fruit quality loss.
UV-C light kills microorganisms (fungi, bacteria, and viruses) and even arthropod pests by damaging their DNA.
According to Takeda and Janisiewicz, UV-C application is most effective at night because microbes and mites have a natural, light-activated special mechanism for repairing their damaged DNA. When UV-C is used during the day, high doses are needed to kill microbes, but those high doses are damaging to plants. To avoid this problem, they irradiated microbes with UV-C at night.
“Night-time application of 30-60 seconds allowed for control of powdery mildew, botrytis gray mold, and anthracnose fruit rot causing fungal pathogens at much lower doses for an effective kill and, more importantly, below the threshold that causes damage to the strawberry plants,” Takeda said.
A severe case of powdery mildew on a zinnia (Photo by Stephen Ausmus).
In addition to strawberries, USDA scientists have used UV-C light on tomato plants and ornamental crops to control fungal pathogens and arthropod pests, such as greenhouse whitefly, flower thrips, and two-spotted spider mite.
ARS collaborated with TRIC Robotics in Newark, DE, to design and test the UV-C application robots at multiple locations, including California, where they have been field tested for over 10 months. The UV-C, non-chemical approach for fungal and pest control has shown so much success that it is on the brink of widespread commercial application.
“With the development of our autonomous UV-C application in the field, it is not so much a question of whether UV-C light treatments can be applied effectively, but how soon commercial platforms for UV-C application will be available to large and small strawberry growers across the country,” Takeda said. – By Scott Elliott, USDA ARS
March is National Nutrition Month. And while we understand that the purpose is to promote enhanced nutrition and improve diets, for the Grower Shipper Association (GSA) this month is about celebrating our food supply and the farmers and farm workers who grow, nurture and harvest the nation’s fruits and vegetables.
Farming is hard. There are many challenges. But farmers will tell you it is a rewarding profession and they love what they do. Farmers will also acknowledge that it takes many hands. It requires collaboration among farm workers, foreman, irrigators, pest control advisors, food safety experts, among others.
At GSA, we see our role as providing crucial support and finding solutions on a broader basis to benefit our farmers and farming companies to make their jobs a little easier. Our work with ag employers throughout the pandemic to access masks, rapid tests, quarantined housing for their employees as well as help vaccinate 90% of the farm workers in our region is one example.
GSA efforts to battle the pest/disease complex commonly referred to as INSV, which causes stunting, wilting and eventual death for leafy greens, is another solution-driving initiative. We created a task force to examine treatment strategies and develop treatment efficacy trials. Lettuce fields are infected by INSV via thrips migrating in from infected host plants in the early spring, which is why GSA is also working with local agencies and communities on weed suppression strategies. Our association remains committed to securing additional funding and resources as well to aid our search for solutions.
As we navigate uncertainties in our current world, the hard work of farmers and farm workers has provided a sustained and consistent supply of fruits and vegetables to consumers. We have watched with significant pride how our region’s farming community has risen to unforeseen challenges because they understand the importance of what they do.
So while many will mark National Nutrition Month in more traditional ways, GSA takes a different approach which is to reflect on how lucky we are to have such dedicated farmers and farm workers growing our food. We celebrate you and thank you for every meal.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will not conduct broad sampling of leafy greens grown in the Salinas Valley region of California for the 2022 growing season.
The decision was made based on data from Western Growers, the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture inspection activities.
The FDA encouraged the organizations to continue to work with the agency to enhance the sharing of industry information on pre-harvest and post-harvest testing as all parties aim to assure the safety of leafy greens.
“Western Growers is committed to developing and deploying data collection and analytic digital tools to further enhance the sharing of industry information,” said De Ann Davis, WG’s Senior Vice President of Science. “We think this is an encouraging development for our members as we strive to grow the safest produce possible.”
The FDA notes they are considering risk-based surveillance sampling based on historical data and information from previous outbreaks of foodborne illness and reserves the right to reassess this approach if unforeseen events occur.
In 2021, U.S. agricultural and related product exports to Mexico shattered all-time records, helping to close the agricultural trade gap between the two trading partners. Mexico surpassed Canada as the number two market for U.S. agricultural product exports. The highly integrated and complimentary nature of U.S.–Mexico food and agricultural supply chains ensured that record trade was observed across all product categories. A recovery from 2020 pandemic lockdowns and high global commodity prices helped values, as well as quantity, increase in 2021. This report highlights historical southbound (United States to Mexico) agricultural and related product trade records by value.
Bilateral Agricultural Trade: U.S.–Mexico bilateral trade in agricultural and related products is more robust than ever, reaching record levels in value and quantity across products and categories. In 2021, bilateral trade totaled $66 billion, with a notable 15 percent trade deficit decline to -$13 billion. U.S. agricultural and related product exports to Mexico increased 42 percent to a record high of $27 billion.
Top Export Market: In 2021, Mexico became the number one market for U.S. dairy products, poultry meat and products, wheat, distillers’ grains, sugar and sweeteners, milled grains and products, animal fats, rice, eggs and products, and pulses. Mexico is the number two market for U.S. corn, soybeans, soybean meal, food preparations, fresh fruit, processed vegetables, “bakery goods, cereals, and pasta”, condiments and sauces, vegetable oils, chocolate and cocoa products, fresh vegetables, planting seeds, non-alcoholic beverages, processed fruit, live animals, dog and cat food, nursery products and cut flowers, and confectionery.
Records in Southbound Agricultural Exports: As outlined in the following sections, U.S. exports of consumer oriented (section I), bulk commodities (section II), intermediate (section III), and agricultural related products (section IV) each reached all-time value,, with many subcategories and products attaining the same.
I. Consumer Oriented ($10.8 billion)
Dairy Products ($1.8 billion): The United States is Mexico’s number one supplier of most of its dairy commodity imports. Mexico consistently is a reliable, high-value trading partner for the U.S. dairy industry. In 2021, U.S. dairy exports to Mexico reached an all-time high by volume, which in the case of cheese, beat out the volume record previously set in 2020. U.S. cheese exports (usually of high quality; using 100 percent milk, for example) are crucial to Mexico’s retail, processing, and HRI sectors because domestic production can only meet 66 percent of national demand. In 2020, dairy commodities started to become more expensive and retained that increased value into 2021, helping to set notable value records for U.S. skim milk powder ($962 million), cheese ($262 million), ice cream ($58 million), and others.
Pork and Pork Products ($1.7 billion): Pork exports to Mexico reached record values and volumes across fresh, chilled, and frozen cuts, including edible offal ($158 million). Hams and cuts ($465 million) for processing reached a record high in 2020, although slightly decreasing in 2021. Pork is the second most consumed source of animal protein in Mexico. Domestic production does not satisfy national demand, and imports are required to fill in the gap. Mexico’s pork consumption increased as people resumed activities outside the home, and also from learning ways to incorporate pork in home cooking. U.S. pork products offer diverse price points across incomes and socioeconomic strata. The hotel, restaurant, and institutional (HRI) sector, for example, draws from high quality cuts for use in premium dishes.
Fresh and Processed Fruits and Vegetables ($1.7 billion): In 2021, U.S. exports of fresh fruit ($748 million) and fresh vegetables ($234 million) to Mexico reached record levels. Record processed vegetable trade was driven by quantity and value increases in frozen potato products ($261 million), reflective of a reopening of the HRI sector after a challenging 2020. Strong U.S. apple ($349 million) exports led growth in the fresh fruit sector. Orange and tangerine exports ($29 million), driven by high demand for products containing vitamin C during the COVID-19 pandemic. Small, but mighty, U.S. cherry ($16 million) exports to Mexico increased an impressive 235 percent from 2020.
Processed Foods and Juices ($1.7 billion): Mexico’s food retailers and industrial food processors continue to see strong demand for retail-ready and processed products. The Mexican food processing sector continues to see exponential growth due to product affordability and high consumer demand for Mexican comfort foods. These market forces resulted in a record $770 million of U.S. food-preparation exports to Mexico’s food processors in 2021. Other notable U.S. record exports for U.S.-origin processed products included bakery goods, cereals, and pasta ($395 million), condiments and sauces ($321 million), non-alcoholic beverages ($212 million), and fruit and vegetable juices ($73 million).
Poultry Meat and Products (excluding eggs) ($1.3 billion): Mexico depends heavily on poultry imports to satisfy domestic demand. In 2020 and 2021, the United States supplied close to 95 percent of Mexico’s poultry meat and product imports, achieving records in both quantity and value, with chicken cuts ($529 million) as a standout. In 2021, U.S. turkey ($32 million), geese ($49 thousand), and guinea fowl meat reached value records, even though those quantities were considerably smaller compared to chicken meat.
Eggs and Products ($215 million): U.S. egg and product ($215 million) exports to Mexico reached their record due to elevated prices driven by worldwide demand. The United States is the main provider of chicken genetics and breeders to Mexico, achieving records during 2019–2021, culminating in $161 million in 2021. U.S. suppliers of shell eggs to Mexico satisfies demand along Mexican border states, while domestic production satisfies demand in the rest of the country.
Organics ($200 million): Record growth in the category is driven by both retail and HRI demand for fresh organic fruit (apples, grapes, pears, peaches, and others), as well as lettuce and spinach. Baby food and other organic processed products also saw significant growth. Higher- income consumers in Mexico are willing to pay a premium for USDA organic products with the hopes of attaining higher health and food safety benefits – a trend the pandemic has bolstered.
Beef and Beef Products: In 2021, very few U.S. beef product exports to Mexico reached a record high either by volume or value. However, shipments of beef for ground meat and processing ($509 million) that could include edible offal ($57.5 million), trimmings, cheek meat, and other cuts were the most notable categories that reached record highs. The reopening of the HRI sector is helping to drive demand along with increased household consumption, which prefers more affordable cuts and products, such as ground beef or variety meats.
II. Bulk Commodities ($9.8 billion)
Corn ($4.7 billion): In 2021, record U.S. corn exports ($4.7 billion) to Mexico were composed mostly of no. 2 corn ($4.4 billion) and white corn ($226 million). However, 2017 volumes maintain the record, reaching 16.7 million metric tons (MMT) versus 16 MMT in 2021. The value record reflects skyrocketing international corn prices, which substantially increased in 2021 to the highest levels in 12 years.
Soybeans ($2.7 billion): Record U.S. soybean exports to Mexico were seen in 2021, due to the substantial price increase registered through the second half of 2021. Volume growth was also due to pandemic-related lockups, which encouraged Mexican households to cook more at home and consume more soybean oil.
Wheat ($1.3 billion): Record high U.S. wheat exports ($1.3 billion) to Mexico were achieved, led by U.S. non-durum wheat ($1.2 billion) exports. Volume trade was modest, reflecting higher international wheat prices that same year. Large volumes of U.S. wheat exports were driven by increased household consumption of bread, cookies, and cakes due to the pandemic-related lockups and partial shutdowns. Mexico remains a highly price sensitive market, including for wheat imports.
Other Bulk Commodities ($157 million): This record is driven mostly by the higher value for peanuts, which went mostly toward consumption as snacks. The reopening of the HRI sector, retail sales, and food processing made this category and oilseeds (excluding soybean) reach record levels ($23 million).
Rice: Milled rice ($16 million) reached a record due to more competitive prices compared with South American exporters, mainly from Uruguay.
III. Intermediate ($4.9 billion)
Distillers Grains ($634 million): In 2021, U.S. distillers grains exports to Mexico reached a record, in value and quantity due to the stronger demand of the robust animal feed and livestock industries in Mexico. Distillers grains are a co-product of corn-based ethanol production that are used mainly as an animal feed protein supplement. Distillers grains have been increasingly used as a substitute for oilseed meal (mainly soybean meal) in feed concentrate formulas.
Milled Grains and Products: Mexican brewers’ purchases of U.S. malt ($230 million) drove U.S. exports to a record high on pent up demand after the industry shut down during 2020 pandemic-related lockdowns. U.S. corn starch ($51 million) exports for food processing (as an ingredient for mayonnaise and beers, for example) saw price increases, which drove this product to record highs.
Animal Fats: In 2021, U.S. lard ($117 million) and edible tallow ($139 million) exports to Mexico reached record highs as Mexico’s food processing activities and agricultural sector recovers in the post-pandemic era. Demand for lard and edible tallow, especially from pork, has increased to satisfy domestic demand in household cooking, industrial foods processing, and informal mom-and-pop cooking. Meat processing and charcuterie depend on lard and edible tallow imports to satisfy domestic demand, as consumption increases and novelty products surge in the retail sector, high quality raw materials are needed for those processes.
Live Animals ($188 million): In 2021, U.S. live animal exports to Mexico reached value records for bovine breeding purposes. Mexico greatly benefits from high-quality genetics from the United States, investing in male and female breeders, depending on the sector. The dairy sector tends to invest more in females, obtaining stronger and more productive calves. The beef sector tends to invest more in males, improving yields and carcass weights for slaughter. Later, the U.S. feedlots indirectly benefit from steers and heifers from Mexico that are exported back as healthy, well-adapted cattle that perform very well in feedlots. In 2021, U.S. live cattle exports to Mexico for immediate slaughter set a record high, breaking the previous record set in 2020.
Essential Oils ($183 million): For use mainly in the perfume and cosmetics industry, food industry (i.e. food conservation or for cooking), in the pharmaceutical industry, and for individual consumption (aromatherapy and other uses at home). The Mexican states with the biggest purchases of essential oils are Mexico City, State of Mexico, Morelos, Baja California and Nuevo León.
Hides & Skins: Exports to Mexico of some pre-tanned bovine raw hides and goat skins in value, specifically, whole cattle hides and skins (in quantity and value). Bolstering the Mexican automotive industry, which is the main destination for U.S. hides and skins to Mexico, strengthening the apparel sector, and diversifying the market to other clients (furniture and garments) have proven to be a smart strategy to allocate U.S. hides and skins in Mexico. — By the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Mexico
Pumpkins (Cucurbita pepo) are a common vegetable crop sold at local pumpkin patches and farmers markets, in addition to commercial production. In 2019, the value of harvested pumpkin was worth $180 million.
Pre-Season ground prep work was completed in late-2021, first-turn plantings have been well under way since November, and harvesting of early Cole crops have begun in earnest.
March is National Nutrition Month. And while we understand that the purpose is to promote enhanced nutrition and improve diets, for the Grower Shipper Association (GSA) this month is about celebrating our food supply and the farmers and farm workers who grow, nurture and harvest the nation’s fruits and vegetables.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will not conduct broad sampling of leafy greens grown in the Salinas Valley region of California for the 2022 growing season.
