Agriculture

Mexico has posted strong agricultural export growth since 2013, turning around a deficit in the country’s trade balance of agriculture products that reached nearly $4bn in 2012. Growth in recent years has been driven by high-value berry and avocado exports, as well as the expansion of large-scale agro-industrial complexes in the central part of the country. Experts note that many advantageous conditions have been external, meaning that little to no control can be exercised over them in upcoming years. Such factors included the good exchange rate against the US dollar, and bumper crops of berries and avocados due to favourable weather. Other circumstantial advantages in recent years have even included a drought in the California growing region of the US, which directly competes with Mexico. The extent to which the Mexican agriculture industry can react with force and flexibility if one or more of these positive factors if removed in the future will demonstrate the sector’s true growth and resilience. This chapter contains an interview with Adrián Iturbide Mejía, Former President, Mexican Association of Avocado Producers and Exporters.